Big White Wall

The Support Network

 Fighting to Talk

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

Well over 1,500 serving personnel, veterans and their families have joined www.bigwhitewall.com for free, since its launch to the Armed Forces community mid Sept 2011, following funding from Help for Heroes and the Department of Health.  Big White Wall is an online community available 24/7. It provides people with a safe, anonymous space to share what’s troubling them, with no fear of stigma.

BWW Military & New Members Info – View the PDF Document –

New members joining www.bigwhitewall.com:

On Big White Wall, members talk anonymously to others who may have gone through similar experiences, and get brief counselling support from Wall Guides (counsellors). Members can share what’s on their mind in ‘Talkabouts’ with the community, or in a one-to-one with another member or Wall Guide.  They can also express themselves using art by creating ‘Bricks’ to say how they feel in images and words. This combined with peer and professional support leads to 95% of members reporting improved wellbeing and 73% sharing an issue for the first time.¹

One member of Big White Wall, a soldier, 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.”

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’.

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 and follow via Twitter @bigwhitewall1

For more information please contact:

Sharon Makin, Head of Media, Big White Wall    07918108195 sharon@bigwhitewall.com

Notes to Editors

Spokespeople available for interview

¹ Big White Wall Independent Review

About Big White Wall

BWW operates within a governance framework jointly developed with clinicians at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust (TPFT).  All Wall Guides are supervised and trained by clinicians from TPFT.  Big White Wall is a community of people who are experiencing common mental health problems who are supported to self-manage their own mental health.

Big White Wall has supported 6500 people in the last two years and has been commissioned to support a further 7000 people by a range of healthcare and other organisations.

Big White Wall’s awards include:  Guardian Public Services Awards 2010 – Winner ‘Transformation Award’; eGovernment National Awards – Finalist; HSJ Awards 2010, Innovation in Mental Health – Finalist ; NHS Health and Social Care Awards, Mental Health and Wellbeing 2010 – Finalist; National eWell-Being Awards 2010 – Finalist; Media Guardian Award 2009 for Innovation in Community Engagement – Winner

ABOUT HELP FOR HEROES

Help for Heroes (H4H) launched in October 2007 and has raised over £108m since then.  H4H does not seek to criticise or be political. Our goal is to assist and work closely with the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force to provide support where it is most needed.  To date, moneys raised for H4H are either spent or allocated to specific projects which provide facilities and support services to the benefit of British Servicemen and women wounded, injured or sick while in service, to include support and assistance to their families when appropriate.  For more information on how money is spent, visit:  www.helpforheroes.org.uk/how_we_spend.html

To date, H4H funds a variety of projects including the £8m Rehabilitation Complex at Headley Court, a new £3.5m treatment centre for Combat Stress, adaptive adventure training through the Battle Back programme and the creation of a £6m Quick Reaction Fund to support individuals in need.

In February 2010, H4H announced its support in the creation of five regional Personnel Recovery Centres (PRCs), which provide, in partnership with the MOD and The Royal British Legion and other Service charities, on-going training and support for the wounded after Headley Court.  Locations of the PRCs are Edinburgh, Colchester, Catterick, Tidworth and Plymouth.

ABOUT H4H TRADING

Help for Heroes Trading retails a wide range of tri-coloured, Help for Heroes branded merchandise to fund the charity’s operational costs, so that all donations go to the ‘blokes.’  Emma Parry is Managing Director of Help for Heroes Trading.