Today’s defence related news includes coverage on medical entry standards into the army.
The Sun reports today that the army does not recruit those who have suffered from exam stress during adolescence. Declaring exam stress as a mild mental health form, the article states that army recruitment is “being crippled by an ‘out of date’ mental healthy policy” and those who seek help during earlier stages of life are ruled out from joining the army later on in life.
This is not correct as a history of mental health does not necessarily prevent someone enlisting. Likewise, exam stress is not an automatic barrier to recruitment and the army recognises people can have normal emotional responses to events such as exams.
At the same time, the Army does have responsibility to review any history of mental health on an applicant’s medical records, given the unique pressures and demands of serving in the armed forces.
For that reason, each application is considered on a case by case basis and all recruits are provided with mental health resilience training and education to further equip them for the demands of service life.
An MOD spokesperson said:
“A history of mental health or exam stress does not necessarily prevent someone enlisting, as each application is considered on a case by case basis.”
