A retired British Army Colonel has called for more to be done by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to stop UK soldiers committing suicide after leaving the military.
Veteran Baz Melia, 58, served nearly 40 years in the Army and his regiment The Rifles has lost as many as 22 soldiers to suicide since 2011, many of whom might have been saved if they had received better help.
Now he heads the ground-breaking Always A Rifleman organisation which consists of over 200 volunteers, part of the regimental family, which can reach veterans in need of help 24 hours a-day, offering them long-term support.
They will hold the Always A Rifleman family gala at Silverstone race track on May 20 this year, aimed at boosting awareness of how to help veterans, fund-raising and connecting families.
Baz, who left the forces three years ago, says: “Veteran suicide is a truly wicked problem and the answer to how to stop it should be that it needs to be dealt with before it is too late.
“One of the biggest problems is isolation after service and this is not helped by some of the MoD thinking. It is a tri-service problem.
“The system of transitioning from being in the military to the civilian world needs to change.
“It must put as much effort into the psychological recalibration as it does retraining skills.
“For example the MoD is very good, for instance at training someone to be a long-distance lorry driver when they leave and earning £45,000 a-year.
“That would be great if it weren’t for the fact that that is one of the most isolated jobs you can get.
“The whole policy needs to change and it is written by people in the Ministry, writing about transition, who have never done it.
“And people are falling through the cracks of the wounded, injured and sickness system. People think these suicides are caused just by what soldiers have seen in war.
“But it is not just that - it is losing the sense of belonging suddenly when you leave the military which can be devastating and it is that loss that can lead to someone committing suicide.
“The MoD takes a year and a half to train a soldier for war and just three days to transition into civilian life. That needs to change.”
The Rifles is the UK’s largest infantry regiment and accounts for 10% of Britain’s close combat capability.
There are an estimated 2.4million veterans in the UK, 38% of which will suffer a form of mental illness, of which 81,600 will have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
For anyone that wants to learn more about the event, including sponsorship, please visit https://theriflesnetwork.co.uk/events/107122 and email Laura at aarp@nw-riflemans-association.co.uk
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.
