Healing The Wounds, the Welsh charity which helps treat sufferers of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), has moved into a new HQ.
The charity, which recently announced actor Michael Sheen as a new patron, now has an office and treatment rooms at The Enterprise centre in Bryn Road, Tondu, Bridgend.
“The move to new offices takes the charity to a new level,” said charity founder and Executive Director Kevin Richards.
“Previously, we were working from home. Now, we have a professional office which will help us raise the charity’s profile in the community.
“The new office also has treatment rooms which will allow our trained practitioners to treat PTSD sufferers.
“This work is crucially important to us as a charity as we have a waiting list of people who need to receive PTSD treatment.
“We have members of the armed forces waiting for PTSD treatment and we also have people from the civilian sector of the emergency services.
“At the outset, we always said that we would spread our wings and treat people from the armed forces (either serving or veterans) and people from the civilian services who have been left suffering from PTSD because of the work that they do on behalf of the community.
“Our long term aim remains to establish a larger PTSD treatment and convalescent centre in Wales, but we do not have the funds for that at the moment.
“Things have moved very quickly since we were first established as a charity and our immediate focus has to be on people rather than buildings. We certainly couldn’t consider setting up a treatment room at home.
“The new office has two treatment rooms and will allow us to continue the work we recently started with our first ever PTSD course, which was held at the Heronston Hotel in Bridgend. That course saw four people from the armed forces benefit from the treatment course run by practitioners trained by the Healing The Wounds charity.”
Mr Richards added: “Since we set up the charity, one thing has become clear – the people of Wales want us to spend the money on the people who deserve it most. Those are the people who sadly suffer from PTSD because they have had to endure some terrible things all in the line of duty and service for their country and their local community.
“Our key target has also been to make sure that these brave men and women are treated as close as possible to their homes. We are not like other charities which will quite happily ship people to other parts of Britain for treatment. We want people from Wales to be treated in Wales and as close as possible to the homes of their family and friends.
“We have people on our waiting list from Newport, Swansea and Llandeilo. One of them is a serving member of the armed forces who came to our attention through his Lieutenant Colonel, so the word is getting out there that we have this great service we can provide for PTSD sufferers.
“Our first ever treatment course in Bridgend was a great success and when you look at the transformation in the four guys we treated there then you start to appreciate how important our work is. It was great to see the guys so relaxed and at ease at the end of the course.”
The Healing The Wounds charity was set up in December 2009 to help provide PTSD treatment for members of the armed forces and veterans. It aims to set up a Welsh base for the treatment of PTSD. It is already arranging treatment courses and building a team of counsellors who can treat PTSD.
Donations can be made –
By post:
To make your donation by post, please send a cheque payable to Healing The Wounds, together with your name address and post code to enable us to claim gift aid, to Healing The Wounds, 22 Abbey Road, Kenfig Hill, Bridgend, CF33 6HF.
Give in person at Barclays Bank.
Call into any branch of Barclays and pay your donation into this account:
Healing The Wounds
Sort code: 20-84-41
Account number: 90516929
The charity’s website is at http://www.healingthewounds.co.uk/
