Armed Forces: Mental Health Services
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many service personnel received a pre-discharge mental health assessment in each year since 2015.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones
All personnel being discharged from the Armed Forces should receive a Structured Mental Health Assessment (SMHA). The primary intent of the SMHA is to identify any unmet or unaddressed mental health needs prior to discharge.
The following table provides the numbers of UK Armed Forces personnel provided with a SMHA within 120 days of their release medical, by year from 1 January 2015 - 30 September 2025.
Year | SMHA Completed |
2015 | 8,145 |
2016 | 8,661 |
2017 | 9,820 |
2018 | 10,509 |
2019 | 10,442 |
2020 | 6,525 |
2021 | 7,546 |
2022 | 9,734 |
2023 | 10.675 |
2024 | 10,275 |
2025* | 6,911 |
* The number of SMHAs that took place between 1 January 2025 and 30 September 2025 to allow for a 120 day follow up period for completion.
Armed Forces personnel being discharged from service who are already under the care of specialist mental health services should have an SMHA completed, however, in some cases this may not be necessary where the individual’s needs are already being met through those specialist services.
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