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Phoenix Heroes CIC
Phoenix Heroes is a non-profit Community Interest Company (CIC) supporting our veterans and their families who are dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We are in our fourth year and have helped hundreds of veterans and their families across the spectrum of our service support platforms. Phoenix Heroes has learned that providing support to ex-service personnel is a complex process that must address the individual’s personal, family, social, physical and mental wellbeing. Getting a person back to good mental health is just a start point in the long recovery process: the longer the remission the better the chances of ex-service personnel having a full and meaningful life. Experience has shown that short term attention to PTSD alone is valuable. However, without the wider and longer support to the individual – the Life Support package – for work, home and societal interaction, addressing mental health alone is far less likely to create a sustainable recovery.
How does your organisation contribute to preventing suicide and supporting those affected by it?
As an Organisational Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) we follow the BACP ethical framework for the counselling professions. All of our professional therapist are members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and our core members of the Phoenix Heroes team have conducted CPD accredited PTSD training courses and Level 3 Award in Principles of Safeguarding and Protecting Children, Young People or Vulnerable Adults. Our therapist have also either, served in the Armed Forces or the Police Force so they fully understand the difficulties that many of our veterans face.
Phoenix Heroes has assisted hundreds of veterans / service personnel, including many families. The experience gained is the basis of its “Life Support” approach: starting with dedicated mental health support for ex-service individuals with PTSD. The ‘Life Support’ package for the individual assists with guiding the person through personal challenges in restoring self-confidence and dignity; assisting the individual with statutory agencies, employment and family matters.
We build veteran communities and look within to identify those that may need additional support, an example being our Veteran Carp Angling Club (VCAC) with hundreds of members from all parts of the UK. We are family focused and see the importance of channelling our services to benefit everyone, attracting people to the outdoors is a simplified way of doing this.
What are your current priorities?
We are focusing on growing our veteran communities across the UK, our communities naturally create a peer 2 peer support environment and we have found that it is benefiting many.
What challenges are you currently facing?
There are a large amount of veteran support organisations, small and large, all doing similar support services. Help is available to our veteran communities however it can become a complex task identifying the right service that meets a specific individuals needs, this can lead to referrals to other organisations. The waiting times for PTSD / mental health support are extended considerably, the NHS are under immense pressure to meet the demands placed upon them. Government and main stream Charity organisations should be looking at channelling their funding lines in support of the smaller organisations that have the capacity to deliver clinical support in a timely manner.