ABSTRACT
In the UK, the government defines a veteran as anyone who has drawn a day's pay from the Armed Forces. Unlike other countries, a veteran is not defined by the length or nature of their service, nor are they stripped of this status if they are discharged dishonourably. Veterans with invisible injuries frequently exhibit multiple co-morbid mental health problems, physical conditions, and highly individualised clinical, and relationship difficulties. "Invisible injuries" or "psychiatric casualties"—that is, mental health problems associated with military service—have caused concern since Napoleonic times, when they were categorised as "nostalgia" or "melancholia". The First World War brought a recognition of "shell shock" and "gas hysteria" which were seen as neurotic responses, with the underlying belief that sufferers did not have a legitimate illness but were nothing more than "malingerers". Occupational therapy was born from conflict and war, set up during the First World War as part of "forward psychiatry" and its principles of PIE were introduced in 1916.
