Christmas can be a wonderful time for many people.
Even those suffering stress-related illnesses and suicidal feelings can find some respite over the festive season. While for many the time with family can alleviate their sense of isolation, for some with poor mental health, their fractious relationships or lack of family or friends only deepens it.
Veterans under the age of 25 are 2–4 times more likely to take their own lives than their counterparts in the general population.
Regardless of how positive Christmas may have been, however, come January, anxiety and depression often deepen or return. Information from the Government’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities shows peaks in suicide during January, and it’s the same for Armed Forces personnel. Veterans under the age of 25 are 2–4 times more likely to take their own lives than their counterparts in the general population.
A Scripture Reader praying with a soldier. ©SASRA
Had it not been for the Scripture Reader’s prayers and the work of SASRA along the way, I would not have gone on to have a full Army career and be here to talk about it today.
Scripture Readers meet one-to-one with serving personnel. ©SASRA
£30 pays for a Scripture Reader to spend time meeting in person with a member of the Armed Forces or their family. As veterans, our Scripture Readers understand the unique military challenges of cultural change, loneliness, survivor guilt, anxiety over performance and fitting in, and other concerns that are particular to the nature of military life.
It’s often in these meetings that serving military open up and share openly any troubling thoughts or their most upsetting circumstances, enabling us to point them to Christ and perhaps put a Bible into their hands for the first time in their lives.
Can you help? If so, please consider donating £30 or more to SASRA, so that we can engage vulnerable soldiers, aviators and their families, and address the military-specific causes of anxiety, depression, mental illness, PTSD and worst of all, suicide.
