Southend Mind project given Big Lottery Fund grant

A mental health charity in Essex has been given £300,000 in lottery funding to help support people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Southend Mind has received the money from the Big Lottery Fund to set up a new project for people in Castle Point, Rochford and Southend.

It will be used to recruit specialist PTSD counsellors and the setting up of a number of centres across the area.

The charity said the funding would be spread across a three-year period.

Barbara Warner, head of fundraising, said: "This will make a great deal of difference to people in our area.

'Major life trauma'

"What we've found in this area was a huge gap for people, particularly ex-military, who had suffered a trauma and needed some specific help."

She added the counselling would be available to anyone who had suffered a "major life trauma".

This could include victims of crime or emergency services staff affected by an incident they had attended.

"There are people who are really struggling to lead a normal life because of a previous event that's happened," she said.

"They've suffered flashbacks from that and it's caused them many physical or mental problems."