Charity Number: 1195443
To help our charity promoting mental health awareness for UK Armed Forces, please visit our donation page.
Mental health awareness for UK Armed Forces
Welcome to Head Up. We are a new UK charity set up by four veterans, intending to promote mental health awareness for UK Armed Forces, and help forces personnel build a positive mindset and improve their mental resilience. We are on a mission to raise enough money to develop a holistic and positive 7-day retreat. This retreat will be there for all those who have served, and are still serving, in any service of the UK military, who wish to improve their mindset and outlook.
A mental health charity for the military community
We are a new, not-for-profit Charitable Incorporated Organisation, which is the highest charity status available. Our aim is to raise funds to establish The Retreat, which will be a safe haven for serving military staff and veterans to enable them to deal with mental health difficulties. The Retreat will be a non-militarised, luxury, eco-friendly location with comfortable accommodation, and many other restorative facilities.
About us and Our Mission
The trustees are Paul Minter, George Dagnall, Simon Moloney, and Adam Carrier. Between us we have served our country for 50 years, and have been on eleven operational tours. We have all seen first-hand how servicemen and women struggle with their mental health as a result of the high-pressure conditions they work under. We are only too aware of how difficult it can be to access the right support for conditions like PTSD, depression and anxiety; we all have friends who have taken their own lives because they couldn’t get the help they so desperately needed.
Our mission is to change this, to raise mental health awareness for UK Armed Forces, and empower members of the military community who are at breaking point to recover their mental health and enjoy a more positive, and happier future.
Paul Minter
Paul is the founder of Head Up, a trustee and full-time volunteer. He served for 18 years with the Household Cavalry Regiment. This included five frontline tours of Afghanistan and Iraq. He was awarded a Mention in Dispatches (MiD) for bravery 2011, and medically discharged with PTSD. After losing several comrades to suicide, Paul founded Head Up to enable veterans and service personnel to access mental health support.
George Dagnall
George is a trustee of Head Up, and served for 10 years in the Rifles Regiment. After two frontline tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, George was medically discharged with a complex hip injury. Alongside his work at Head Up, George works as a crisis and security consultant, and is a Lloyds Military Network committee member.
Simon Moloney CGC
Simon is a trustee of Head Up, and served for 10 years with the Household Cavalry Regiment. This included two frontline tours of Afghanistan, in one of which he was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for actions taken in Afghanistan in 2013. Alongside his work for Head Up, Simon is an Ambassador for Fighting Minds, supporting veterans into finding work.
Adam Carrier
Adam served for 11 years with the Household Cavalry Regiment, encompassing two frontline tours of Afghanistan. In 2018 he left the army to pursue a career in the civilian sector and is now a crisis and security consultant, as well as being a Head Up Trustee, helping to promote mental health awareness for the UK Armed Forces.
The challenges
- Military personnel are generally reluctant to acknowledge anything is wrong for fear of being labelled weak or non-deployable. It takes veterans 13 years on average to ask for professional help, and 84% of those reporting psychological issues never seek treatment.
- Much of the psychological care currently available, while excellent, is offered in a military setting. For people in acute mental distress, such surroundings can trigger further harm and be incompatible with any meaningful recovery.
- While veterans get high priority over civilians, NHS mental-health services are struggling to cope with increasing demand across the board. For complex conditions such as PTSD, it can take up to two years to access the right therapy, and this may end up being too little, too late. For many, going private is simply too expensive to be a realistic option.
What The Retreat will offer:
- A seven-day, hands-on, relaxed and friendly environment
- No official medical requirements needed: individuals will load themselves on the course and attend free of charge
- It will be a non-militarised environment. Allowing each guest to fully relax away from any triggers they may experience from the military
- Basic lifestyle methods taught that each individual can use in their day-to-day lives. No therapy, medications or counselling
- 18-month aftercare package in place
Charity Number: 1195443
To help our charity promoting mental health awareness for UK Armed Forces, please visit our donation page.
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