§ Mr. GrahamTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make arrangements for families with relatives serving in the Gulf war to receive support via counselling agencies.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonWhere the dependants of service men and women are living at overseas stations, we aim to replicate locally the current United Kingdom Department of Health and local authority provision. We therefore fund the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Families Association (SSAFA) to provide professional primary health care and social work service. Similarly, we fund Relate to provide a marriage guidance counselling service. These agencies will provide counselling to all service families overseas, including those with relatives deployed to the Gulf.
In the United Kingdom, families of our service men and women have access to the normal range of counselling agencies. In addition, SSAFA's voluntary representatives, who have wide experience of supporting the service community, offer advice and help to the wider families of service personnel. At service hospitals worldwide we fund the joint committee of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and British Red Cross to provide low-level professional welfare support to patients and visiting relatives. In planning for the Gulf crisis this service has been expanded, from voluntary resources, to include representation at all hospitals which may expect to receive war casualties.