A charity which supports veterans suffering with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is launching a campaign which it hopes will raise the hundreds of thousands of pounds it needs to make its services sustainable.
Change Step is a service offering advice and peer mentoring, and has been working for 18 months in Northern Wales.
Mental health is a big concern for people who have served in the military. The trauma that they can be put through can have a huge impact on them for the rest of their lives. Mental health care in the country isn’t as good as it could or should be, and so the help provided by these kinds of services is invaluable to some.
Change Step is the work of the charity CAIS, and the money raised will go to making the service more stable. “We need to raise £750,000 by early next year to make Change Step sustainable,” said the fundraising manager, Lizi Jones.
The campaign hoping to raise that cash comes with the hashtag #VeteranShoes, and involved people taking pictures with veterans wearing their army boots, and tagging them on social media.
This kind of tagging has proved very successful, with the #IceBucketChallenge and the #BloodSugarSelfie helping to raise a lot of awareness and money for their respective charities last year.
Post traumatic stress disorder can include a range of other mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. Nightmares are a common and upsetting symptom, and flashback can trigger panic attacks.
Texting Shoe22 with their donation amount to 70070 will help to keep the service open to help veterans out.
