Veterans case study: ‘Sympathetic ear was a long time coming’

Published on 20/07/2012 00:00

IT took veteran Bill McDowall six years to even talk about the health issues which he suffered after being medically discharged from the Army.

After ten years with the Scots Guards he was forced to leave after an accident which left his knees so badly damaged he could barely walk. It was only when Mr McDowall, who served in Northern Ireland and the Falklands, found an understanding GP he realised he was also suffering from depression and post traumatic stress disorder.

The 51-year-old said: “I joined up at 16, when I was discharged ten years later I was lost. It was all I had known, I’d no clue about life outside the forces. I was married with two kids and no home. We moved between homeless hostels so often I never really had a GP. The ones I did see were really unsympathetic and didn’t have a clue about what I was going through.

“One sent me to a psychiatrist where I’d speak about seeing my friends die and after 45 minutes they’d say, ‘that is all for now, Bill’. These new resources are long overdue.”

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