Portsmouth veterans face health crisis

On our Facebook page today we are sharing the The News, Portsmouth front page article which features a study carried out here at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust

QA's own Veterans Substance Misuse Nurse, Donna Bowman, who also works with Combat Stress says:

“Veterans are very proud people who often think they should be able to cope with their issues on their own. As a result it can be many years before they seek help, by which time their lives can be in a terrible state and they have developed serious physical or mental health conditions." 

"Here in Portsmouth I see a lot of Royal Navy and Army veterans with substance misuse issues. Sadly many of them have waited a long time before coming forward for help but the important thing is that it’s never too late. We have the right support in place to help them get the treatment they need so they can rebuild their life.”

Key points:

Retrospective anonymised data used for the study was taken from the medical records of more than 2,300 patients referred to the Alcohol Specialist Nurses Service at Queen Alexandra Hospital over an 18 month period between March 2014 and September 2015.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/5/11/95.