In 2018, 79 British Military veterans and serving personnel tragically lost their lives as a result of suicide, this is an alarming number, represents a growing trend and is something that as a Country we must collectively work hard to reverse. According to the charity Combat Stress, the rate of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for veterans who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan in combat roles is 17 per cent, which by itself is also a staggering number.

Although care of our serving and veteran military personnel is a national and multi-agency responsibility to identify those at risk and provide specialist mental health care, very often the first line of defence to identify and assist those at risk, very often lies with family, friends and local communities. By the time someone’s mental health reaches the point of no return with suicide, as a nation we have collectively failed in our duty of care as a society.

One way for communities to be better prepared in the fight against mental health issues is to have members of the community trained as psychological first aiders. Physical injury first aiders are valued, and we should place as much emphasis on the importance of mental health first aiders within our communities. According to the mental health charity Mind, approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience mental health problems each year, so military aside, the benefit of having psychological first aiders in our communities has wide reaching benefits.

This is the reason we are fund raising for Sam Smalldon, an upstanding member of the local community whom has volunteered to undertake the Immediate Care Assessment and Rehabilitation for Uniformed Services (ICARUS) psychological first aid course. This provides first-tier contact to serving and ex-service personnel who require immediate and urgent treatment and/or therapy in the event of their being in mental or medical crisis.

Sam is an army veteran (ex Sapper) living in Taunton, Secretary of the local Royal Engineers Association branch, Sergeant at Mace for the Mayor of Taunton Deane, and generally an active member of the local volunteer community. His voluntary work includes collecting for the poppy appeal for the past 28 years, and he helped found Victory House, a home for homeless veterans with Taunton Association for the Homeless (now called ARC). He is a humble man whom is always willing to provide assistance others, and would like to do what he can to help in the fight against veteran suicides. One can only admire Sam’s selfless New Year’s resolutions, which include the following:

• Apply for and do the ICARUS Immediate Care Practitioner Course.

• Use this qualification to help veterans with mental health issues.

• To set up a support network here in Somerset to cover the Southwest, working with local councils and Organisations like SAAFA and the RBL and other military based groups.

• To acquire another building to convert into a veterans home.

• To set up a support network for families of these suicide victims, get them the help they need to be able to come to terms with their loss, financial aid from the Government and/or MOD with Funeral costs.

I’m sure you will agree that having someone like Sam as part of our community is something for us to be proud of, and someone whom we should all support. As such it isn’t appropriate that a community volunteer like Sam should feel obliged to pay for the ICARUS course out of his own pocket, and hence why we are fundraising to pay for Sam’s attendance.

Full details of the ICARUS course can be found HERE.

The course costs £750 and that is our target, although given it is a 3 day a residential course in Aberdeen, Sam will still incur additional travel and accommodation costs, so if we exceed our £750 target we hope people will be happy that any surplus can go towards Sam’s travel and accommodation costs to attend.

Please help us support Sam in his bid to play an active role in assisting bring down the number of veteran suicides !!