Armed Forces personnel, both currently serving and veterans, can suffer from mental health problems and subsequent alcoholism. Specifically, those that have seen combat are more likely to struggle with mental health issues and alcohol addiction. Combat situations are extremely distressing; many soldiers who have been in battle or witnessed horrific scenes can come back with PTSD which that often stems from experiencing traumatic events.
The Ministry of Defence has published a report on mental health within the UK armed forces. Just over 3% of all UK armed forces personnel were assessed with a mental disorder in 2017/2018. Fewer officers suffer from mental disorders compared to other ranks and women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder than men. The Royal Marines have the lowest representation at just 2.2% with the Royal Ait Force the highest at 3.2%. The PTSD rate is fairly low at only 2 in 1,000. Alcohol abuse in the Royal Marines has seen an increase every year since 2010/2011 however alcoholism in the Royal Navy, Army and the RAF has been decreasing since 2007/2008.
We have created an infographic to highlight the ket statistics from the report. Please feel free to link to this resource or share on your website or social media*.
You can view the full report here.
*All references and shares to this infographic must have a dofollow hyperlink to this page.
Posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2018 at 3:49 pm in Alcohol Addiction, Mental Health.
