{"id":16316,"date":"2013-06-14T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T09:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=79d7c2a138b05660fd5625add0f14d82"},"modified":"2013-06-14T09:10:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-14T09:10:00","slug":"news-story-online-support-for-the-armed-forces-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=16316","title":{"rendered":"News story: Online support for the Armed Forces community"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p><a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bigwhitewall.com\/\" title=\"Big White Wall\">bigwhitewall.com<\/a> is a free online space where serving personnel, veterans and their families can talk about what\u2019s troubling them and get help and support in a safe environment whenever they need it.<\/p>\n<p>The service is easy to use, completely anonymous and available 24\/7.  Trained professionals are online at all times to ensure everyone is safe.<\/p>\n<p>Traditionally it\u2019s men who find it difficult to talk about what\u2019s on their mind but on the Big White Wall (<abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr>) they have found a place to open up. 60 per cent of <abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr> members from the Armed Forces community are male.<\/p>\n<p>One member of <abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr>, currently serving, and who wishes to remain anonymous, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\"><abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr> helped me feel less alone in Afghanistan. For a base with 15,000 people, Camp Bastion was a pretty lonely place. It\u2019s good to know <abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr> is with me wherever and whenever I need it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr> allows people from the Armed Forces community to get support from like-minded people to express what they\u2019re really feeling. Members can choose to vent and express how they feel in words through a \u2018Talkabout\u2019 or images by making \u2018Bricks\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>They can share issues with members of the community or trained professionals, called Wall Guides, who are online at all times. They can also conduct tests to help them understand common issues such as depression and anxiety and access lots of useful information.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr> has professionally-led guided groups designed to help people deal with issues from work stress to getting a better night\u2019s sleep.<\/p>\n<p>The website also produces a free fortnightly email, with hints and tips for members of the Armed Forces community about topical, everyday issues that may affect them.<\/p>\n<p>For example, how to deal with stress, relationship problems, money issues or simply how to think about things differently to make positive change. There\u2019s no need to join <abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr> to receive wallpaper.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Big White Wall\">BWW<\/abbr> has supported over 12,000 people to date and has been commissioned by the Ministry of Defence, Clinical Commissioning Groups, the <a href=\"\/government\/organisations\/department-of-health\" title=\"Department of Health\">Department of Health<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.helpforheroes.org.uk\/\" title=\"Help for Heroes\">Help for Heroes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Armed Forces personnel are being urged to talk about issues that are worrying them via a social media website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16373,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16316\/revisions\/16373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}