Victor Programme
VICTOR
Veterans’ Intensive Complex Trauma Organised Recovery
VICTOR (Veterans’ Intensive Complex Trauma Organised Recovery), our intensive treatment service for PTSD and Complex PTSD, is a highly specialised service and is at the forefront of clinical innovation.
VICTOR is a three-phased treatment programme comprising two weeks of preparatory work, a two to three week intensive treatment phase, and three months of follow-up support. Veterans taking part in VICTOR progress through treatment as part of a cohort of up to eight veterans and attend a variety of groups in addition to their individual treatment sessions.
The intensive treatment phase provides up to 36 hours of evidence-based trauma-focused psychological therapy, as well as a comprehensive range of wider multidisciplinary treatment, and peer and family support to ensure an individualised approach.
The treatment is intensive by design. This is because intensive treatment typically results in much higher completion rates compared to weekly treatment and can accelerate recovery whilst minimising the impact of treatment on family life and work.
The three months following the intensive treatment phase allow time for progress veterans made during intensive treatment to continue and enables us to support veterans further as they continue their journey to recovery. The follow-up phase concludes with a review appointment with their allocated psychological therapist to review progress, explore any outstanding needs and consider next steps.
After this point, veterans might go on to access our peer support service (for up to a year); they may be discharged, or they may engage in further treatments to aid their ongoing recovery.
Initial outcomes from the first cohorts undertaking VICTOR have shown great results: 80% of veterans achieved a clinically significant reduction in PTSD symptoms: and 57% no longer met the criteria for Complex PTSD (based on outcome data to September 2024).
This short film profiles a veteran’s experience of undertaking VICTOR, our intensive treatment service for PTSD and Complex PTSD. The film provides an insightful summary of the difficulties veteran Dave faced before treatment, his experience of treatment, and what life is like post treatment.
Combat Stress is the UK’s leading charity for veterans’ mental health.
We provide life-changing treatment and support for veterans from every service and conflict. We focus on veterans with complex mental health needs that have arisen because of traumatic experiences while serving in the military.
We want to support veterans to recover from the impact of traumas experienced during military service, reduce symptoms and distress, and enable veterans to live the life they want based on their values and what is important to them.
We are a veteran-centric organisation. This means all staff receive training to understand military life and the mental health difficulties veterans can face after leaving the military.
We are also a research-led organisation. We have a dynamic research team that is part of national and international projects contributing to cutting-edge research in veterans’ mental health and innovations in treatment. Clinicians use this to continually improve our service’s effectiveness and ensure we deliver evidence-based treatments.
We only offer veterans treatments based on what we know works and that this has been shown in the research of high quality. Research, including our own, shows that veterans can recover from traumatic experiences, and it is right to be optimistic about treatment making a real difference to veterans’ lives.
As a charity we have over 100 years experience in the field of veteran mental health. We have developed collaborative partnerships with several statutory bodies including the NHSE, the NHS, MoD and the Scottish Government.
As experts in veteran mental health, we are well-placed to meet the changing needs of veterans today.
That is why we have developed our new VICTOR service – an intensive treatment for veterans with Complex PTSD.
- A participant in the Royal College of Psychiatrists Quality Network for Veterans' Mental Health Services Peer Review
- A finalist in the 2021 Royal College of Psychiatrists Team of the Year Award
- A finalist in the 2021 Health Service Journal Military and Civilian Health Partnership Award
- A member of the Confederation of Service Charities
- A member of the Contact Group
- A member of the Five Eyes international research collaboration
- An internationally renowned research team
- In a partnership with Virginia Mason Institute (Seattle, USA) to deliver Combat Stress' continuous improvement strategy
