Troop mental care failing 'scandal'
Updated on 15 July 2009
Failings in the care given to British troops who suffer from mental illness are a "national scandal", the Conservatives have said.
Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox warned that the UK was sitting on a "timebomb" of future post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
The Tories highlighted the dangers at a summit in Westminster after one of the bloodiest periods for British forces for decades.
The bodies of eight soldiers killed in Afghanistan within a 24-hour period - three of them teenagers - were returned to the UK on Tuesday.
Dr Fox said the heartfelt reaction to these losses showed the public was much more aware of the sacrifices made by the Armed Forces than at any time he could remember.
"We will have a generation of disabled young servicemen," he said.
"But what worries me is while we focus on what we can see, we have too little focus on what we cannot see."
Research suggests that veterans aged 18 to 23 are up to three times more likely to commit suicide than civilians.
More veterans of the UK's Falklands campaign and first Gulf War are believed to have killed themselves after quitting the forces than died in action.
Some 255 were killed during the Falklands conflict, but an estimated 264 of the troops who survived have since committed suicide. The Gulf War claimed the lives of 24 British soldiers, but a Government study last year suggested that 169 veterans had died of "intentional self harm" or in circumstances that led to open verdicts at inquests.
These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.
