76 | Tees Business
United – Nikki Butt
of RMS and Sara
Arthur of Genesis.
JOINING
FORCES
RMS and
Genesis
supporting
our military
back to work
PICTURES: CHRIS BOOTH
A
call to arms is being issued to
businesses throughout the Tees
Valley – and the two firms behind
it are hoping it will prove a real
force for change within the armed forces
community.
RMS operations director Nikki Butt and
Genesis managing director Sara Arthur
are on a mission. Their objective is to
create a local support network for veterans
integrating into Civvy Street and they’re
asking other businesses to join up.
At its heart, the initiative hopes to
bring companies of all types together to
tackle the issues ex-military personnel
face around mental health, employment
and homelessness, which they say are
becoming more and more connected in
today’s society.
Figures show almost 15,000 veterans left
their military careers in 2017/18 – so what
happened to those veterans who fought for
our country?
Since 2018, figures show there have been
at least 155 suicides among the veteran
and serving community that are known
about, most of which are connected to one
if not more of the above issues and directly
related to a veteran’s military service.
Armed forces charity All Call Signs
believes many more deaths go unrecorded,
as they say coroners don’t have guidance
on how to ask whether a suicide was
somehow related to military service – so
the real figures could be much higher.
The government has suicide prevention
and armed forces mental health plans to
help tackle the problem, but they have a
ten-year window for implementation. In
that time, it’s estimated more ex-military
personnel will be lost to suicide than
were lost in active service in both Iraq and
Afghanistan. So where does this leave
those who have served the country?
RMS and Genesis believe their local
community can help reduce these