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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A veteran has described how a military mental health charity helped him to get through a crisis that struck after he left the armed forces – through the power of Shakespeare and his plays.<\/p>\n
Androcles Scicluna left the British army in 1979 and consequently struggled with depression. Despite having a home with his family, he ended up sleeping rough, keeping it a secret from his wife and children, and eventually managed to get a council house.<\/p>\n
He later got in touch with Combat Stress, a mental health charity for veterans, which put him in contact with a housing and advice organisation called Stoll that helps vulnerable and disabled people who used to serve in the armed forces.<\/p>\n
It was this experience that led him to a job at the Poppy Factory in London and a place in the Combat Veteran Players, a theatre group specialising in Shakespeare’s plays. Mr Scicluna had previously had a reputation as an entertainer while in the army, so the group particularly appealed to him.<\/p>\n
“Joining the Players has been so helpful, it brought that character out of me. It’s a great improvement,” he told the Independent.<\/p>\n
“The last three years are much better than the rest of the years of my life. It is great. Not just being helped but the feeling of now helping others.”<\/p>\n
Founded in 1919 after the First World War as the Ex-Servicemen's Welfare Society, Combat Stress currently helps around 5,600 veterans aged between 19 and 97 with mental ill health. Just one-quarter of all veterans with mental ill health seek help, according to research recently published in the Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps.<\/p>\n
Combat Stress offers free treatment and support to help ex-servicemen and women and their families with issues such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A military mental health charity helped one veteran to get back on his feet and enjoy life again after a crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n