North East and Teesside veterans urged to join new community app
'Old Comrades' is to help veteran stay connected to each other
A new digital community app has launched in the North East and Teesside to help veterans stay connected.
'Old Comrades' is for people who've served in the Armed Forces to share their interests and develop friendships and has been developed by The Royal Hospital Chelsea.
Andrew Cammiss is the founder of East Durham Veterans Trust and moderates the North East group. He said: "During your time there, you work, you live, you socialise with the same people and we see a lot of people that come out of the Armed Forces who then don't have that interaction anymore. They socially exclude themselves from society and that's where a lot of mental health issues come to the forefront.
"You can meet old friends as well, people you've served with, I've connected with an old friend of mine through the app already who's actually down in Luton. It's a fantastic platform for connecting and it's really important that the veteran community do socialise with one another because we've got the same mindset, the same sense of humour at the same time and it's great for mental wellbeing.
"It's a safe place for people to connect, it's where they can go on and find out about social inclusion groups, what's happening in the area but also there's organisations on there where if they are needing help and support, they can also reach out and find information about how to contact those services.
"There's lots of interest groups on there as well, if you're interested in military history or if you're interested in photography. We also have the social connection that you'd find on X or Facebook where you've got your own personal feed, you can share photos or share photos from your time in service to what you're doing now."