:00:09. > :00:13.Scarred by conflict, veterans are turning to a Welsh charity. I would
:00:14. > :00:19.recommend any soldier to stay away from them. We go undercover to find
:00:20. > :00:26.out how this charity says it is helping. There are questions about
:00:27. > :00:35.the qualifications of this therapist. He lied to my face. And
:00:36. > :00:59.where has the money raised for veterans actually ended up?
:01:00. > :01:09.It just creeps up on you. Just nightmares, flashbacks of what
:01:10. > :01:17.happened through training and things like that. The scariest thing is
:01:18. > :01:22.when you don't understand why you are having these nightmares. Nearly
:01:23. > :01:35.a decade of Army service has left its mark on Justin Martyr in. --
:01:36. > :01:40.Justin Martyr in. I was at the end of my tether, I could not cope. Me
:01:41. > :01:45.and my wife were arguing and I felt as though my insides were shutting
:01:46. > :01:51.down so I walked to a local train track, sat on the bridge and that
:01:52. > :02:00.was the first time I attempted suicide. He heard about Healing the
:02:01. > :02:04.Wounds, a charity which promises to help veterans with post-traumatic
:02:05. > :02:11.stress disorder. He took up the offer of therapy, it is a decision
:02:12. > :02:15.he now regrets. It was a lot of therapy, going back in your mind to
:02:16. > :02:23.the time you feel most vulnerable, and shares and scared. They tried to
:02:24. > :02:32.offer techniques on how to get rid of those feelings. I was so
:02:33. > :02:38.confused, scared, I felt a lot worse than I did walking in.
:02:39. > :02:46.The therapy is controversial. It is called NLP, all neuro-linguistic
:02:47. > :02:53.programming. Its aim is to change patterns of mental and emotional
:02:54. > :02:59.behaviour. I did two full days and I thought on the third day, my wife at
:03:00. > :03:04.the time came to collect me, and as I walked through the doors, it was
:03:05. > :03:08.such a relief. I was left feeling worse than I did before I attended
:03:09. > :03:21.Healing the Wounds. I was suicidal. There are 250,000 war veterans in
:03:22. > :03:25.Wales and some of them still have physical and mental scars that are
:03:26. > :03:31.putting a strain on mainstream services and the NHS. As a result,
:03:32. > :03:37.charities have sprung up in recent years to fill the gap. Tonight, we
:03:38. > :03:43.will be investigating one of them and asking, does it do what it says
:03:44. > :03:48.on the tin? Healing the Wounds has raised almost
:03:49. > :03:59.?500,000 in recent years but they are using techniques which are
:04:00. > :04:04.causing concerns. None of them are keyword, as far as I can see, after
:04:05. > :04:09.three days treatment. Some have been made very unwell as a result of
:04:10. > :04:18.going there and needed a lot of support from the NHS and charities.
:04:19. > :04:28.Doctor Kitchener deals with soldiers would need treatment. More and
:04:29. > :04:31.shares, depressed, self harming, suicidal and being very chaotic and
:04:32. > :04:36.very difficult to be around and live with. The NHS has been trying to
:04:37. > :04:42.persuade Healing the Wounds to move away from mental health treatment.
:04:43. > :04:47.We have asked them to stop it. We have showed them the evidence from
:04:48. > :04:51.the NHS, we have shared our concerns with them, and yet they continue to
:04:52. > :05:01.operate in the way they do. The charity has been saying in
:05:02. > :05:09.recent months that it no longer treats PTSD patients, it supports
:05:10. > :05:13.them. We asked someone to go undercover for us to find out
:05:14. > :05:17.exactly what Healing the Wounds is offering. He does not have PTSD but
:05:18. > :05:24.he ran the charity and describe some symptoms. I explained my symptoms
:05:25. > :05:30.were getting quite angry, could not sleep, drinking too much, using
:05:31. > :05:37.drink to get to go to sleep, and that my wife had thrown me out.
:05:38. > :05:42.Healing the Wounds had told him that if you went to a GP, they would
:05:43. > :05:47.probably put him on a waiting list, but they could see him straightaway.
:05:48. > :05:58.I was a little bit surprised that she did not ask if she could for my
:05:59. > :06:03.GP. -- phone. Healing the Wounds operates in one wing of the Rest Bay
:06:04. > :06:11.Hotel in Porthcawl. Filming secretly, our veteran has arrived
:06:12. > :06:19.for a three-day course of therapy. This is Carol Richards, co-founder
:06:20. > :06:23.of the charity. She saw him for a consultation the
:06:24. > :06:24.week before when he told her he had not had any previous treatment for
:06:25. > :07:05.PTSD. Carroll appears to be steering him
:07:06. > :07:09.away from the NHS, even though she has not done any checks with his GP
:07:10. > :07:14.to find out about his true mental and physical condition. To start
:07:15. > :07:19.treatment for any mental health condition, there must be a
:07:20. > :07:24.diagnosis. Lieutenant Colonel John Skipper has been very worried about
:07:25. > :07:30.Healing the Wounds. He is an Army veteran anti-co-wrote a report and
:07:31. > :07:37.visited the charity. I asked what happens, how long is your course, I
:07:38. > :07:42.asked if there are any failures or whether they were any who did not
:07:43. > :07:46.respond to treatment. I was told it was 100 present successful, which I
:07:47. > :07:51.thought, actually, with mental health and treatment is lasting
:07:52. > :07:58.three days, undiagnosed conditions, was fanciful, to say the least.
:07:59. > :08:03.So who is behind Healing the Wounds? It was set up by Carol and her
:08:04. > :08:07.husband, Kevin Richards. Here they are three years ago making the case
:08:08. > :08:13.before Assembly Members for a Welsh home for war veterans.
:08:14. > :08:18.We saw the need for a facility in Wales. There is no fixed facility to
:08:19. > :08:23.send these guys from the Armed Forces.
:08:24. > :08:27.Mr Richards had ambitious plans. He even wrote to Princes William and
:08:28. > :08:32.Harry asking them if they would like to be patrons of what he would like
:08:33. > :08:37.to become Britain's largest military charity. A year later, they launched
:08:38. > :08:43.an appeal to buy this building near Ammanford. Their first target was to
:08:44. > :08:47.raise ?200,000. We need assistance from the government to say, we
:08:48. > :08:53.support these troops and we want them to give us some money to start
:08:54. > :09:00.the process going. The dilapidated 156 bedroom mansion and its 150
:09:01. > :09:05.acres was up for sale for ?2 million. A highly ambitious appeal.
:09:06. > :09:08.Part of the grand plan was for 11 houses in this courtyard to be named
:09:09. > :09:16.after fall in Welsh soldiers, including Craig Barber who was
:09:17. > :09:22.killed in Iraq. They said we could even have a villa in memory of
:09:23. > :09:26.Craig. We could have a villa in memory of other servicemen who had
:09:27. > :09:30.died, and I felt such a buzz and it lifted my spirits. I thought, what a
:09:31. > :09:35.wonderful opportunity to do something good in his memory. But
:09:36. > :09:40.she was also taken aback by the way he asked her to get involved. He
:09:41. > :09:46.said, we want you to hit the public in the gut with your emotional
:09:47. > :09:53.story. You don't say that to a mother who has just lost their son.
:09:54. > :09:57.Villagers helped her raise thousands for a villa in Craig's memory, but
:09:58. > :10:03.then came a phone call from the Richards. He wanted me to give him
:10:04. > :10:09.the many for the mansion appeal and I said, I can't do that. I can't
:10:10. > :10:14.give you that money. Its thousand pounds had been raised for the
:10:15. > :10:20.villa. She wanted the money ring fenced in Craig's memory. She then
:10:21. > :10:24.received a solicitor's letter demanding the money. She said they
:10:25. > :10:27.were two visits from the police. She said Kevin Richards denied he ever
:10:28. > :10:34.promised her a villa named after Craig. There was no mention of the
:10:35. > :10:40.Craig Barber villa. He told you you had made that up? He said it had
:10:41. > :10:44.never even been discussed, that was the biggest shock. Not the fact I
:10:45. > :10:49.had a supposedly stolen their money but there was no villa. So why was
:10:50. > :10:54.he quoted in this newspaper as saying exactly that? The police
:10:55. > :10:59.investigated and took no action. She remains deeply upset by her dealings
:11:00. > :11:02.with the Richards. I am so shocked that these people are doing things
:11:03. > :11:08.like this. I never want anything more to do with them. She gave all
:11:09. > :11:13.the money raised for the villa to another military charity instead.
:11:14. > :11:20.Healing the Wounds now concedes they had indicated that an apartment was
:11:21. > :11:24.to have been named after Craig. But back in January 2011, Kevin and
:11:25. > :11:28.Carol's dream of taking over the mansion collapsed so they set up a
:11:29. > :11:33.new charity instead called Healing the Wounds, with ?120,000 they had
:11:34. > :11:40.raised towards the purchase of the mansion.
:11:41. > :11:46.Across Wales, people had been doing their best to raise money, first for
:11:47. > :11:59.the Golden Grove appeal and then for Healing the Wounds. We would help
:12:00. > :12:05.them in any way we possibly can. Kevin Richards has been busy too,
:12:06. > :12:12.setting up various companies. One was dissolved, leaving debts of
:12:13. > :12:16.?288,000. He has also created this price comparison website which
:12:17. > :12:26.promises to donate net profits to veterans charities including this
:12:27. > :12:31.one. The use of the word foundation is such that a general member of the
:12:32. > :12:36.public might well look at it and think, a foundation is automatically
:12:37. > :12:44.a charity. Martin Price is the chair of the Institute, fundraising can
:12:45. > :12:47.read, and found out the foundation is a private company listing Kevin
:12:48. > :12:51.Richards as a director. It is inappropriate to do that because it
:12:52. > :12:58.could mislead the general public if they are being asked for funds. We
:12:59. > :13:03.know from Healing the Wounds's accounts that they have raised
:13:04. > :13:07.almost ?500,000 over three years, from bucket collections to donations
:13:08. > :13:11.from private companies and tens of thousands of pounds in grants from
:13:12. > :13:17.public bodies, but it is more difficult to find out what they have
:13:18. > :13:24.spent that money on. Does any of this make sense to you? No. It does
:13:25. > :13:28.not make any sense at all. All their accounts for the past three years
:13:29. > :13:34.were filed on the same day. He says that is not good and that is not
:13:35. > :13:38.all. This will show you some of the costs. They have allocated
:13:39. > :13:42.fundraising costs and costs of goods sold down to charitable activity
:13:43. > :13:47.again, so this is charitable activity but these are clearly not
:13:48. > :13:50.charitable activities. We know what money has been spent but what we
:13:51. > :13:55.can't tell is how much money has been spent on counselling and
:13:56. > :14:03.post-traumatic stress disorder work with ex-servicemen. These accounts
:14:04. > :14:07.have not been produced to the recommended practice for charities.
:14:08. > :14:12.Healing the Wounds is not giving you that nice warm feeling that the
:14:13. > :14:16.money is going to the right place. Healing the Wounds told us that
:14:17. > :14:20.using the word charity was an error and they thanked us for bringing it
:14:21. > :14:24.to their attention. They added that the foundation has been dissolved
:14:25. > :14:32.and all references to it will now be removed. Meanwhile, back at Healing
:14:33. > :14:36.the Wounds, Carol still has not made any attempt to contact our
:14:37. > :14:43.veteran's GP to find out about his physical or mental health.
:14:44. > :14:51.After a few minutes, Carol then asks him to go for a walk in his mind,
:14:52. > :14:55.back to some troubling events in his life. She tells him not to relive
:14:56. > :15:07.the memory but to describe the emotions associated with it.
:15:08. > :15:17.Stop when you think there is work to be done.
:15:18. > :15:26.relaxation techniques, sitting back in a chair, closing your eyes and
:15:27. > :15:33.trying to put things away, like your thoughts and whatever memories you
:15:34. > :15:39.had, put yourself in a happy place. And all that type of stuff. The
:15:40. > :15:41.National Institute for clinical excellence does not recommend using
:15:42. > :16:00.this therapy for PTSD sufferers. It is used as a motivational tool.
:16:01. > :16:03.Then it is being used on psychiatric populations and this is where the
:16:04. > :16:09.evidence base does not support its use at all. We have problems with
:16:10. > :16:20.its use with veterans particularly with PTSD. You need to learn to let
:16:21. > :16:24.go of this feeling at this time. My understanding is they have gone to
:16:25. > :16:29.do their training which is approximately two weeks and have
:16:30. > :16:32.come back from that training and have set themselves up as master
:16:33. > :16:40.practitioners in neurolinguistic therapy. Two weeks. Do you think
:16:41. > :16:46.that is appropriate? I think it is very rapid based on the people we
:16:47. > :16:51.employ in our service in the NHS who have completed three or five years
:16:52. > :16:58.of training to be a mental health professional. How long have you
:16:59. > :17:05.trained? 11 years and I am still training. Two years ago when this
:17:06. > :17:08.veteran went to Healing The Wounds he was told to stop taking
:17:09. > :17:16.antidepressant pills prescribed by his GP. When I got there I had a
:17:17. > :17:19.debrief and they told us to stop taking the medication because it
:17:20. > :17:26.would get in the way of the treatment they were going to offer.
:17:27. > :17:32.At Kings College London they have some of the UK's top experts on
:17:33. > :17:43.PTSD. We asked one of them to look at our evidence. You said the time
:17:44. > :17:48.unconscious is somewhat confusing. Let your unconscious tell you what
:17:49. > :17:53.to do is unhelpful because it does not tell you what to do. This
:17:54. > :17:58.professor is worried about their approach and was concerned to hear
:17:59. > :18:03.that the veteran's GP had not been contacted and another one had been
:18:04. > :18:08.told to come off his medication. If this group who are not medically
:18:09. > :18:11.qualified and do not know a person's history because they have
:18:12. > :18:18.not got it, that could cause problems and could be dangerous. Our
:18:19. > :18:26.veteran told Carol he had never had PTSD treatment before. I went to my
:18:27. > :18:29.GP first of all and they did not know how to deal with it. Through
:18:30. > :18:34.Internet searches they came up with Healing The Wounds. That was the
:18:35. > :18:44.quick fix I was looking for and they promised a lot. What did they
:18:45. > :18:48.promise? To eradicate PTSD. Other variants on the same technique
:18:49. > :18:53.should not be used as a first line treatment. There are plenty of
:18:54. > :18:57.evidence -based treatments that work and trying to direct people towards
:18:58. > :19:04.non-evidence -based interventions is concerning and could be dangerous in
:19:05. > :19:09.some cases. The charity denies telling veterans to stop taking
:19:10. > :19:14.their medication and it says it does tell them to get advice from their
:19:15. > :19:18.GP. Healing The Wounds says they have helped 39 veterans who have
:19:19. > :19:23.asked them for help having exhausted all other help from the NHS. They
:19:24. > :19:30.say they offer more than therapy and plays veterans into training and
:19:31. > :19:34.employment. It uses volunteers to work with vulnerable veterans and
:19:35. > :19:39.one, a councillor, has been investigated by regulators. We have
:19:40. > :19:44.discovered that he was falsely described as a paramedic on the
:19:45. > :19:50.charity's website and has also been described as a clinical
:19:51. > :20:02.psychologist. This man helps veterans with issues like housing. I
:20:03. > :20:06.met with them and the person they told B was their clinical
:20:07. > :20:11.psychologist. The housing section had to make the checks and they
:20:12. > :20:16.found he was not registered as a clinical psychologist. I went to the
:20:17. > :20:22.pleas and I said I think this man is committing a fraud. The police
:20:23. > :20:33.referred it to the regulator of the use of professional titles. He says
:20:34. > :20:38.he was mistakenly described as a paramedic on the website. But Paul
:20:39. > :20:44.was not the only one who complained about him. He looked me in the eye
:20:45. > :20:49.and told me I am a clinical psychologist. He lied to my face and
:20:50. > :20:55.whether he lied to Healing The Wounds, or whether they took him at
:20:56. > :20:57.face value, they certainly could not have checked appropriately his
:20:58. > :21:03.qualifications as they would have found out he was not a clinical
:21:04. > :21:07.psychologist. The regulator found that John Yandle had not been
:21:08. > :21:12.complying with the rules although he has promised to do so in the future.
:21:13. > :21:17.He has told us healing the wounds did not check his qualifications
:21:18. > :21:23.before he started cancelling veterans. Back at Healing The Wounds
:21:24. > :21:34.after an hour and a half of therapy Carol says that is it for the day.
:21:35. > :21:45.Go back and enjoy your afternoon. You have got my number anyway. I
:21:46. > :21:51.have, yes. As this is a residential course, Carol sends him to a hotel
:21:52. > :21:57.for the night. The surprising thing for me is I was completely left to
:21:58. > :22:03.my own devices. When the door closes behind you, you start to think you
:22:04. > :22:12.have got 20 odd hours on your own in a strange hotel room. Veterans we
:22:13. > :22:22.interview to have PTSD told us that being left alone after the therapy
:22:23. > :22:30.was the worst part of the course. I remember feeling tired and agitated
:22:31. > :22:33.and that night was one of the worst night I ever had. I was having
:22:34. > :22:46.nightmares, I wet the bed. Cold sweats. I felt so scared and so
:22:47. > :22:53.alone. I had the overwhelming urge just to end it all. Although he was
:22:54. > :22:59.unhappy Justin did not complain, but this man said he did. One night I
:23:00. > :23:03.was having a really bad time so I went into the Fourier and asked them
:23:04. > :23:08.if they could get hold of somebody. I was maybe a bit louder than I
:23:09. > :23:13.would be normally, but that was because I had had flashbacks and a
:23:14. > :23:17.panic attack. The charity told us that veterans welcome the chance to
:23:18. > :23:22.have time to themselves and they are given 24 hour contact numbers and
:23:23. > :23:28.they are unaware of any veteran feeling unhappy with their servers.
:23:29. > :23:32.We have also heard from a number of veterans who have said the charity
:23:33. > :23:38.has helped them. It is our veteran's second day of therapy. He
:23:39. > :23:54.asks Carol how quickly the treatment can work. What is the shortest one?
:23:55. > :24:08.20 minutes. He has seen quite a view of his mates. I did a bit of work
:24:09. > :24:17.with him and told him to concentrate on the new guys coming in. He went
:24:18. > :24:21.back to Afghanistan. My average patient probably sees me for
:24:22. > :24:30.anything from four months to a year to treat their PTSD and other
:24:31. > :24:33.problems. It is not a quick fix. Complaints have been made about
:24:34. > :24:38.Healing The Wounds to the charities commission and the Welsh government,
:24:39. > :24:44.but because there are no controls in place, the charity is free to carry
:24:45. > :24:50.on. The chair of the Assembly's cross-party group on the Armed
:24:51. > :24:53.Forces is not using -- ruling out certain uses of neurolinguistic
:24:54. > :25:01.therapy, but more scrutiny is needed. Anyone can set up as a
:25:02. > :25:05.practitioner and the quality of their work is not monitored by
:25:06. > :25:12.anybody, so that puts potential risks out in the field. What we need
:25:13. > :25:17.is some proper arrangement for the oversight of the quality of the work
:25:18. > :25:25.that is being done by any charity that is giving some support to
:25:26. > :25:35.veterans. When our undercover veteran was filling in forms he met
:25:36. > :25:48.Kevin Richards. Can I just fill in these forms for Carol. Healing The
:25:49. > :25:55.Wounds is collecting data to prove its treatment works, but experts say
:25:56. > :26:00.the therapy must be subject to randomised controlled trials. We
:26:01. > :26:03.know treatments that work for PTSD and we know how to investigate
:26:04. > :26:09.whether the treatment is effective or not. It has not been investigated
:26:10. > :26:16.by proper, rigorous trials to show it works. Just because somebody gets
:26:17. > :26:20.to the end of a session is no guarantee they will feel good in the
:26:21. > :26:25.future. Given the fact we know these therapies have a potential to harm,
:26:26. > :26:33.we need to do these trials. Healing The Wounds says it has supported
:26:34. > :26:40.more than 130 veterans and their charity plays a vital role. Is it
:26:41. > :26:56.time these charities got together and worked out these differences in
:26:57. > :26:59.the interest of veterans? To a large extent they are. The well-being
:27:00. > :27:00.service is doing a major role in coordinating the efforts of the
:27:01. > :27:04.state funded institutions and charities in pulling all of that
:27:05. > :27:07.together. They could do more and they could be more inclusive of some
:27:08. > :27:14.of the charities, but it is moving in the right direction. You said you
:27:15. > :27:20.would like to see them amalgamated. I would love to see them
:27:21. > :27:26.amalgamated. There are concerns that the NHS is not filling a growing
:27:27. > :27:30.gap. Should you not be admitting that the NHS is falling very short
:27:31. > :27:37.when it comes to treating the veterans and their mental health
:27:38. > :27:42.problems? I think that is a fair point. There is a vacuum. Whenever
:27:43. > :27:46.there is a long waiting list, people are going to look elsewhere. If
:27:47. > :27:52.somebody is going to offer you a three-day, quick fix, which does not
:27:53. > :27:57.cost any money, that is effective. Whereas if you want to see me, you
:27:58. > :28:01.might have to wait six months before you can see that evidence -based
:28:02. > :28:08.treatment. The Welsh government says it has pumped half ?1 million into
:28:09. > :28:11.the service and it says were treatment is offered it should be in
:28:12. > :28:21.line with evidence -based guidelines. It is the end of therapy
:28:22. > :28:27.for our undercover veteran and the charity insists it is safe and
:28:28. > :28:33.effective. They also say they are completely open and transparent. We
:28:34. > :28:36.wanted to interview Kevin and Carol Richards, but they declined to
:28:37. > :28:42.appear and they added, healing the wounds is a small, but busy charity
:28:43. > :28:48.which has as its main priority the needs of veterans and PTSD
:28:49. > :28:54.sufferers. Tonight a military charity has told Healing The Wounds
:28:55. > :29:03.to remove its logo from the website to show that no endorsement is
:29:04. > :29:10.implied. The charities commission is also investigating. The battle to
:29:11. > :29:18.overcome PTSD continues for many veterans, including those we spoke
:29:19. > :29:23.to. I feel I am on the right road now. If I had continued with Healing
:29:24. > :29:29.The Wounds, I would be on the slippery slope again. When you first
:29:30. > :29:36.meet them they promise you the earth, we will help you with this,
:29:37. > :29:41.we will do that, but like I said I could have sat down with anybody and
:29:42. > :29:49.they could have done the same thing that they did. I thought every
:29:50. > :29:54.charity and everybody willing to help people with PTSD were like
:29:55. > :29:59.Healing The Wounds. Thankfully I found otherwise, but it could have
:30:00. > :30:04.been too late. They served their country and some have wounds to
:30:05. > :30:13.heal, but what they all want and deserve is peace of mind. Next week
:30:14. > :30:16.we investigate road rage. That is Week In Week Out, next Tuesday at
:30:17. > :30:22.10:35pm.