14th November 2011
UNPACK YOUR TROUBLES

Record numbers of serving personnel, veterans and their families, logon free to mental wellbeing service Big White Wall for anonymous, safe support.

Over 1,000 serving personnel, veterans and their families have joined www.bigwhitewall.com since its launch in September this year.

H4H have provided a grant of £100,000 to the project, which means veterans, serving personnel and their families can access the 24/7 service for free. Amongst other services, users can talk anonymously to others who may have gone through similar experiences, with a team of counsellors always online to offer support.

The volume of new joiners demonstrates there has been a longstanding need for a safe, anonymous space for our serving men and women to share what's troubling them and to seek help with no fear of stigma.

New members joining www.bigwhitewall.com:

Group	New Members %	Male %	Female %
Serving Personnel	42%	65%	35%
Veterans	36%	86%	14%
Family	22%	15%	85%

The majority of new members are serving personnel, which suggests they are at ease, and comfortable asking for support, in a stigma free environment. Amongst new joiners 65% of serving personnel and 86% of veterans are men. This is the first time men have overtaken women in becoming new members on Big White Wall.

Big White Wall is an online community that has professional counsellors available 24/7. There are no waiting lists and is there to provide help and support to individuals at a time that suits them. Amongst other services, users can talk anonymously to others who may have gone through similar experiences, get brief counselling support (Wall Guides) or take part in a therapeutic group or art therapy workshop. This combined with peer and professional support leads to 95% of members reporting improved wellbeing and 73% sharing an issue for the first time.

One member of Big White Wall, a soldier with PTSD who wishes to remain anonymous said: “I feel that the support given by Big White Wall is fantastic. You are not judged and you can be yourself. Most of us are good at hiding our feelings. This is the only place I have felt comfortable in expressing myself.”

Common issues facing our serving personnel and veterans raised on Big White Wall include fear of deployment in war zones, difficult experiences and memories of war, post-traumatic stress disorder, concerns for their families whilst serving overseas, injury and disability, drug and alcohol use.

Avoidance of stigma for anyone experiencing psychological distress is vital, not least our serving personnel and veterans, who may not use existing offline services as Dr Andrew Murrison MP highlighted this in his ‘Fighting Fit’ report on veterans in October 2010. Dr Murrison flagged the importance of interventions acceptable to a population accustomed to viewing itself as mentally and physically robust and described Big White Wall as a ‘pioneering online early intervention service’.

Jenny Hyatt, CEO & Founder of Big White Wall said:
“We want to offer safe anonymous support to the many men and women of our Armed Forces, veterans and their families who are unable to find support elsewhere for fear of stigma or through isolation. We’re absolutely delighted with the initial take up, it is clear that there are thousands who are ‘fighting to talk’, and we would like to thank Help for Heroes and Government for their vision in allowing us to offer this service for free.”

Bryn Parry, CEO & Co-founder, Help for Heroes said:
"Mental wellbeing is a difficult subject for many to discuss. With the increase of tours and the level of mental stress experienced it is vital that we have the correct services in place to give our boys and girls the best help available for their mental wounds, as well as their physical. We are delighted to be supporting Big White Wall with their safe, supported and anonymous community and hope it will encourage more service personnel to reach out when they are feeling troubled."

To join, serving men and women, veterans and their families simply log on to www.bigwhitewall.com and click on the relevant section to them. Support Big White Wall on Facebook now www.facebook.com/bigwhitewall