Mental health support for veterans: what actually helps, and why reaching out is the hard part

If you are in crisis or feel unsafe, please call 999 or go to A&E. For urgent mental health support, call NHS 111 and select the mental health option. Samaritans (116 123, free, 24/7) and Shout (text 85258) are always available.

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Veterans in the UK can get mental health support through the NHS, through Armed Forces charities, and, for something in the moment rather than in weeks, through Wobble's veteran-specific support at getwobble.co.uk/veterans. In England the NHS runs a dedicated veterans' mental health service called Op COURAGE, the devolved nations have their own veteran services, and national charities offer help alongside them. The harder part, and the one worth being honest about, is not the list of services. It is that reaching out at all is the step most people never take.

This piece came out of a studio conversation. On Wednesday 29 July 2026, Wobble's founder Jack Murphy appeared on UK Live, an independent UK news and current affairs channel on YouTube, alongside Ed Macfarlane of weServed, the veterans' organisation Wobble has partnered with. The appearance is the reason for writing now, but the substance is the point, and it sits inside the wider question of men's mental health and why so many people who are struggling never make it as far as asking. Everything clinical here is drawn from NHS material and UK mental health charities including Mind and Anxiety UK. It is not a diagnostic tool. If any of this is landing close to home, a conversation with your GP or a veterans' service is a reasonable next step.

Just need someone to talk to?

Wobble is a new and unique format of on-demand mental health support from qualified UK therapists. Describe what you are going through in a few words or a voice note, and a real therapist sends back a personalised video, usually within hours. No appointment, no waiting list, always a person and never AI.

If you have served, start with the veteran version, built with weServed:

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If you have not served, Wobble works exactly the same way here:

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Your first Wobble is £5.

Awareness has risen. Knowing what to do about it has not.

On UK Live the question came up of whether we are in a better place than we were twenty years ago. The honest answer is that awareness of mental health has risen enormously, and that is real progress, but there has been no matching rise in people knowing what to actually do about it. Knowing that it is fine to struggle is not the same as knowing where to go next, and the route to support is long and complicated enough that a great many people who are struggling never see it through. They do not decide against help so much as get worn down before they reach it.

The numbers bear the gap out. More than half of adults in England with a common mental health condition receive no treatment at all, according to NHS England's Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/24. That is not mostly a story about people who do not want help. A lot of it is people who could not find the door, or found it and could not face the queue behind it. Closing that gap is less about persuading people that mental health matters, which is broadly won, and more about making the first step small enough that people actually take it.

Why is it harder for veterans to ask for help?

It is harder because veterans have spent years being expected to hold it together and be the strong ones, so the act of putting your hand up cuts against everything the job trained into you. Reaching out is difficult for almost everyone, and it is harder again for a community whose whole identity was built on coping, carrying others, and not being the one who needs carrying.

That is exactly why Wobble built a veteran-specific version rather than pointing people at the standard product. The framing that weServed uses, and that Wobble has taken on, is valuable not vulnerable. Nobody who has served is being treated as broken or in need of rescue. The veteran version simply meets people where the reluctance actually is, with language and a route in that were designed for someone who would rather not be doing this at all. A lot of veterans do not need a diagnosis or a programme in the first instance. They need someone to talk to, and a way of doing it that does not feel like admitting defeat.

Why Wobble exists

The conviction behind Wobble is not abstract. Jack refused to engage with mental health support for around seven years. Someone close to him kept pushing, for another two or three years beyond that, before he finally tried therapy, and it changed his life. Sitting with that afterwards, the obvious thought was how many other people are equally shut off to the idea, and how the traditional route, where you wait days, weeks or months for a first appointment with nothing in the moment, quietly loses the people who were only ever going to reach out once.

That is the whole reason the format works the way it does. If support is not genuinely accessible, the people who need it most never arrive, and being told to seek help lands as another chore on a pile they are already avoiding. Wobble was built so that the first move is as small as sending a message, because the size of the first step decides who takes it.

If you have served, this was built for you.

The veteran-specific version of Wobble is now live, built with weServed and listed on weServed's own site. Describe what is going on and a qualified therapist sends a personal video back, usually within hours.

Get a veteran Wobble →

Not a veteran? Wobble works the same way for everyone else:

Send your first Wobble →

Your first Wobble is £5.

Asking is the start, not the finish

One point Jack made on UK Live needs care, because it is easily misread. Naming what you are struggling with is a beginning rather than an ending, and support does its best work when the person meets it halfway. This is not a criticism of anyone who is struggling, and it is emphatically not a "toughen up". It is a point about how support actually functions, and it comes from someone who spent the better part of a decade refusing the very thing that eventually helped him.

There is a lever of resilience and a bit of accountability that sits alongside asking, rather than replacing it. Saying out loud that you are not okay is a genuine act of courage, and then the work is in turning up to whatever comes next, in small and unglamorous ways, on the days you would rather not. Wobble's therapists work to the Wobble response framework, a structured approach built for short, practical, single-response support, and the shape of it reflects this exactly: name what is going on, and get one or two things to actually try, rather than a nod and a leaflet. Wobble's Clinical Lead is James Penney, an NCPS Accredited Psychotherapeutic Counsellor.

Where can veterans get mental health support in the UK?

Veterans can get support through the NHS, through Armed Forces charities, and through Wobble for something in the moment, and the right mix depends on what you need. In England, the NHS veterans' mental health and wellbeing service Op COURAGE supports serving personnel due to leave, reservists, veterans and their families, and in many areas you can refer yourself, or a family member, GP or charity can refer you. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own veteran-specific services. Waits vary, and there is often a gap between referral and support actually starting, which is precisely the gap Wobble was built to fill rather than replace.

Alongside the NHS, national Armed Forces charities such as Combat Stress and SSAFA provide mental health support aimed specifically at the ex-service community, and Samaritans (116 123) is there for anyone at any hour. Wobble does not point you towards these and step back. It provides support directly: you describe what is going on in text or voice, a qualified therapist sends a personalised video within hours, and there is no appointment and no waiting list. Every Wobble therapist is a qualified UK practitioner, a member of a PSA-accredited professional register within the SCoPEd framework, and has passed a clinical audition on realistic cases before ever being given a real user. It is human support, never AI, and for veterans it comes through the version at getwobble.co.uk/veterans that weServed helped shape.

Support in the moment, not in the diary

Wobble is on-demand mental health support from qualified UK therapists. Describe what is going on and get a personal video back, usually within hours, with one or two practical things to try. Always a real person, never AI.

If you have served:

Get a veteran Wobble →

For everyone else:

Send your first Wobble →

Your first Wobble is £5.

When it is urgent

None of the above is for a crisis. If you are a veteran and you are having thoughts of harming yourself, or you feel you cannot keep yourself safe, treat that as urgent. Call 999 or go to A&E, call NHS 111 and choose the mental health option, or call Samaritans free on 116 123 at any time of day or night. If the anger, low mood or numbness that many people carry after service has been building for weeks, or is getting in the way of your sleep, work or relationships, that is worth taking to your GP or your local veterans' service. Men in particular often notice it first as anger rather than sadness, which is worth knowing, because it is easy to miss what is underneath it. You do not need to be at breaking point for any of this to be reasonable.

Quick summary

Awareness of mental health has risen, but knowing what to do about it has not kept pace, and more than half of adults in England with a common mental health condition receive no treatment at all. Reaching out is hard for most people and harder still for veterans, who spent years being the strong ones, which is why Wobble built a veteran-specific version rather than a generic one. It exists because its founder refused help for years before therapy changed his life, and the format is designed so the first step is small enough that people actually take it. Asking is the start rather than the finish, and support works best when you meet it halfway. Veterans in the UK can get help through NHS Op COURAGE and its devolved equivalents, through Armed Forces charities such as Combat Stress and SSAFA, and through Wobble for something in the moment. The veteran version is now live at getwobble.co.uk/veterans, built with weServed.

For the wider picture, see men's mental health. For anyone who has served, start at getwobble.co.uk/veterans.

Sources and further reading

• NHS: Mental health support for veterans, service leavers and reservists, Op COURAGE (nhs.uk)
• NHS England Digital: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, England, 2023/24 (digital.nhs.uk)
• Mind: How to improve your mental wellbeing (mind.org.uk)
• Anxiety UK (anxietyuk.org.uk)
• Samaritans: 116 123 (samaritans.org)
• Shout: text 85258 (giveusashout.org)

This article is for information only and does not replace advice from a qualified medical professional. If your mental health is affecting your daily life, please speak to your GP, a veterans' service, or contact NHS 111. If you are in crisis, please call 999 or go to A&E.