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About this Award…
An award to honour a person or team that has demonstrated a major commitment and contribution in support of the physical or mental welfare of serving or former members of the armed forces community. This may be through healthcare, therapeutic treatment or rehabilitation services and support.
The judges will be looking for evidence of:
- An engaging story behind the person or team, the identified needs being met and quantified demands for the service.
- What delivery challenges have been faced and how they have been overcome.
- Great examples of results and the impact for the armed forces community that have been achieved through the delivery of these services.
- The different or unique characteristics of the service that can set standards of best practice across the sector and therefore makes this nomination special.
This award is suitable for a person, organisation or team.
Meet our 2021 Winner!
Edward Dean – Anxious Minds
An award-winning charity supporting thousands of veterans and families by improving mental health services in the North East, whilst providing volunteer placements for over 20 trainee counsellors.
Eddie Dean served 22 years in the infantry plus nine years delivering training for Afghanistan. But afterwards, he suffered a nervous breakdown, clinical depression and complex PTSD. Eddie struggled to find support for his mental health and found himself divorced and living in a caravan.
After he received help from SSAFA and his Regimental Association, Eddie pledged to improve mental health support in the North East. True to his word, in 2015, using his war pension and the little savings he had, he founded Anxious Minds. He has since raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to improve mental health services in the North East.
Five years on, Anxious Minds is a multi-award winning mental health charity providing early intervention and long-term support for people struggling with mental health. It supports thousands of veteran families with quick access into areas including alcohol reduction support, debt management, family law, crisis management and suicide prevention.
Edward Dean said:
“It’s just amazing. The fact I’ve been recognised by our peers, our veteran colleagues, for the work that we’ve done. I’m a volunteer; we’ve worked for over 6 years now for early intervention and long-term support for mental health. It’s having that recognition for the staff, volunteers – it’s just amazing. We are so proud to be recognised by our community.”Previous Winners: 2020 – Sapper Support 2019 – The Poppy Factory 2018 – Dr Aamer Khan, Back on Track (individual) Depthrapy & Deptherapy Education (organisation) 2017 – Ash Clare, Battleback
