Like many of his comrades, former soldier Anthony Bradshaw is haunted by
memories of Iraq. In his flashbacks, he sees an Iraqi child whose skin and
flesh is peeling from her body.
Each day, he sits listlessly at home, replaying scenes of his tour of duty:
explosions from falling mortars while children played nearby; the terribly
burnt girl he saw carried into a field hospital. “I wrote my will when I was
19 and went to war,” he said last week. “You think it’s going to be like a
movie, but it’s not. It’s madness.”
As British forces swept into Iraq after President George W Bush’s shock and
awe campaign, Bradshaw was among the troops of the Pioneer Regiment. His
logistics regiment was to build camps and transport, but in the first few
days he came under attack from Iraqi forces.
“We were in a convoy going to the hospital in Basra and there were suddenly
other soldiers screaming at us to get out of the vehicle. There were
explosions in a nearby house and gunfire, but I couldn’t see who was
attacking us. It was terrifying.”
Bradshaw returned from Iraq, distressed and disoriented by his experiences. He
was showing the classic signs of combat stress, but says the army failed to
provide the support he needed.
“I was getting flashbacks and felt this numbness in my head,” he said. “The
images of the bombs falling on Basra were scrambled in my head with
everything else I saw. It just all seemed so unreal. I was getting more and
more angry with myself, but I didn’t know what was wrong. I was waking up in
the night, cold and shivering.” As his mental condition deteriorated,
Bradshaw was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder and discharged as
unfit for service. Once he was a civilian again, the army offered him no
help.
The National Health Service, which has seen its mental health provision
reorganised and cut in recent years, was not much better. Bradshaw said: “I
thought I might get help from the NHS, but it was just the same as the army.
You are given a few pills and sent on your way. I’ve never got any
counselling.
“The army was my life and I was good at it. I now feel my life is a
standstill. I get anxious even at the thought of going out of the house.”
An investigation by The Sunday Times reveals that Bradshaw, who lives in
Brough, near Hull, is among a hidden toll of hundreds of Iraqi and
Afghanistan veterans who have been discharged suffering from posttraumatic
stress and other psychological problems. Many are on waiting lists of up to
18 months for therapy; others are given drugs and not even offered
counselling. Some of these traumatised troops are now homeless. Others are
in prison. All are angry that they have been let down by their country.
Why are these soldiers not being helped by the Ministry of Defence (MoD)? Why
is specialised treatment not readily available? And what can be done to help
them?
New figures show that 2,123 troops have been treated for mental health
conditions related to their deployment in Iraq since 2003. More than 320
have been treated for posttraumatic stress disorder and many others suffer
from anxiety, depression or other neuroses. Welfare workers say these
figures fail to reflect the hundreds of other soldiers who have suffered
symptoms after leaving the armed services.
The MoD should have been well aware this was likely to happen. As Graham
Richardson, a welfare worker with the Royal British Legion, said: “We’ve
known about soldiers suffering this kind of trauma for many, many decades.
But they’re still not getting the specialist care they need. We are going to
be dealing with the victims of this for many years.”
In the first world war, Siegfried Sassoon wrote of the “unspeakable tragedy”
of shell shock. He described the symptoms as “sweating, suffocation of
nightmare . . . paralysis of limbs . . . the stammering of dislocated
speech”.
Some who suffered shell shock were condemned for cowardice. It was only last
year that about 300 soldiers who were executed for failing to return to the
trenches were pardoned.
The shell shock suffered by first world war troops was initially suspected of
being caused by neural damage rather than psychological trauma. After the
second world war, the condition was referred to as “battle fatigue” and in
1980 it was officially termed posttraumatic stress disorder.
THE families of troops returning from Iraq claim the condition is still
woefully neglected by the military. The family of Lance-Corporal James
Piotrowski, 23, of the Irish Guards, say he is one such victim. Formerly
seen as one of the most promising recruits of his intake and praised for
fighting in Iraq with “pride, loyalty and compassion”, Piotrowski last year
faced a court martial for possession of a SA80 assault rifle smuggled out of
his barracks. He was jailed for more than seven years for a firearms offence
and for assaulting a military police officer, despite a medical report
submitted by his lawyers stating he was suffering from posttraumatic stress
disorder.
Last week Piotrowski’s mother Debbie said her son had suffered nightmares and
panic attacks when he returned from Iraq. She describes him as a “lost,
lonely soldier” who needed help.
In a letter to his local newspaper after the court martial, Piotrowski’s
father Mark wrote: “I am not saying he didn’t deserve a custodial sentence
for these serious offences, but the military have been totally and utterly
clinically negligent in their treatment of my son and many other veterans,
which is absolutely outrageous.
“Young men returning home from conflict are receiving no help to return to
normal soldiering . . . creating a timebomb of human agony for them to
endure.”
The MoD insists it provides proper support for troops showing signs of trauma,
with 15 support centres across the country and private inpatient care when
required. The MoD’s experts have disputed that Piotrowski was suffering from
combat stress, claiming he had a psychotic disorder.
But despite the mental health facilities provided by the army, soldiers
complain their combat stress has been stigmatised or neglected. Scott
Garthley, a reservist who was wounded in a Scud attack on the first day of
the Iraq war, said he was not given counselling, although he asked for it.
Garthley, a former bank executive who was earning £100,000 a year, was not
diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder until November 2004. He said:
“There was no support for me.”Garthley describes his symptoms with painful
clarity. “You can become hyper-reactive to sounds such as fireworks, or
unexpected noises and helicopters. And things people say . . . can trigger
flashbacks.”
Other former soldiers, such as Justin Smith, who served in the Cold-stream
Guards, said he was given good psychiatric care in the army, but was told he
would have to pay for private therapy when he went to the NHS. He has also
been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. He said: “They said I
could get therapy, but it would cost £250 and I would have to pay £50. You
serve Queen and country and you just get slapped in the face.”
In January Smith confronted Tony Blair in a live debate on television. The
prime minister has subsequently written to him, saying although it may be of
“little comfort”, the government has made improving NHS mental healthcare a
priority.
Under the government’s guidelines, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) — which
helps patients control their thought processes — is one of the recommended
treatments that should be available on the NHS. The problem is that many
veterans are put on waiting lists of up to 18 months. Under government
guidelines, those discharged with posttraumatic stress disorder should be
given priority, but Shaun Rusling, a trustee of the National Gulf Veterans
and Families Association, said: “I’ve never come across any veteran who’s
been happy with their NHS treatment. I was referred in January 2006 to the
posttraumatic stress clinic and I am still waiting for an appointment.”
PAUL FARMER, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said last week
the problems experienced by British veterans reflected those faced by anyone
seeking NHS help for mental health problems. In the worst areas, there were
waiting lists of up to four years for therapy.
He said: “One of the solutions is for more comprehensive funding to be made
available for CBT. It is used to treat not only posttraumatic stress
disorder, but a range of other mental health conditions.”
Other mental health experts argue it would be preferable for veterans to have
access to specialised care in a military setting. They say many former
servicemen are reluctant to seek help from the NHS.
The MoD says it is working to improve mental healthcare and part-funds Combat
Stress, a charity that runs three treatment centres for ex-servicemen
suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.
Despite the MoD money, Combat Stress says it is in danger of being
overwhelmed. Toby Elliott, chief executive, said: “These guys need to be in
a safe therapeutic environment, where all the people with them are service
veterans suffering from the same problems. And to do that you need more
resources.”
What is worrying is that the number of soldiers showing symptoms of
posttraumatic stress disorder seems to be increasing rapidly. Since
September, the number of veterans referred to Combat Stress centres has
almost doubled from 81 to 158.
Elliott said: “Twenty-five years on from the Falklands war, we have seen less
than 400 soldiers [from that conflict]. The rate of admission from Iraq is
much faster. The worry is that it is only the bow wave of what will be
coming for many years.”
Additional reporting by Deirdre Fernand and Michael Smith
