A homeless veteran who “drank beer from morning until night” has described his journey from the battlefields of Afghanistan to fighting alcoholism in Birkenhead.

Mike once feared for his life fighting the Taliban, but homelessness and alcoholism have been his enemies since returning to civilian life.

Since returning to Wirral, Mike’s life has been defined by a chronic lack of support, no job and no home.

He spoke about how he drank beer from morning until night every day, saying: “We just drank until everyone was p****d.”

Mike – who served in Afghanistan until 2012, has a story shared by many other veterans nationwide.

The picture in Wirral does not compare well to some parts of the north west in terms of support for veterans.

Whereas Liverpool has a well-established Veterans HQ, there is no such place for Wirral’s veterans to get together, share their ideas for coping with home life and be directed to services which can help them.

Due to the traumatic nature of their experiences, the veterans who have spoken out did not want their surnames revealed.

Mike found coming home incredibly tough.

Since returning to Wirral in 2012, he has had what he describes as a “constant battle with homelessness”.

For a long time he was in and out of friend’s houses sofa surfing to try and keep a roof over his head.

Mike said: “I was stuck in a rut. Every experience was magnified by 10 and I was drinking heavily, my body needed beer to go to sleep.

“Alcohol is a depressant, it makes everything worse.”

Mike admits he had a serious addiction to alcohol after leaving the army. He puts this down to two things.

One of them is what he experienced during his time in the forces.

Though Mike has not been diagnosed with a stress-related condition such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he is far from unaffected by his time in the army.

He said: “I was carrying the weight of the past, I still go on about stuff [other veterans] have already forgotten about.

“My family didn’t know how to deal with it.”

The other issue is the massive difference between life in the army and life back home.

Mike said: “You know what you’re doing in the army, where you’ve got to be, how you have to behave. Everything’s decided for you.

“When you come out there’s none of that. You have no idea what to do, so you go down the pub.

“Job centres and charities try to help out. But they haven’t lived in your shoes, they don’t know what you’ve been through.”

Mike is currently unemployed and does not feel mentally ready to get a job yet.

One of the most telling things he spoke about was how his family reacted when he returned from the forces.

Mike said: “When you come back you think everyone will be happy to see you, but actually you have completely changed as a person.

“The army breaks people down and remakes them how they [the army] want them to be. When you come back, you’re completely alien to everyone else.”

In the last year Mike has found a permanent flat in Birkenhead – where he lives on his own, with the help of a local church.

Although this could be seen as a big step forward for him, in reality it is yet another source of anxiety.

Mike said: “I was lucky to find a flat, but it’s like Beirut. I’ve been an alcoholic and I’m surrounded by nine pubs.

“I have to put up with drug dealers at all hours of the night.”

On one occasion he confronted a group of dealers outside his flat, which he said was a big mistake.

“They could have done anything to me. I have my kids round to the flat sometimes and this makes me worry for them.

“Where do you run to if you’re confronting them outside your own flat?”

Dave, also an ex-veteran, has another heart-wrenching story to tell.

He left the army in 1988, after six tours of Northern Ireland.

10 years ago, he was diagnosed with PTSD, owing to many horrific experiences during The Troubles.

Dave said that one day six of his colleagues were blown up by an IRA bomb. He said: “When something like that happens, your mind keeps going over it.”

So when he came home, he was straight on the beer.

Dave said: “I had lots of money after a good payoff when I left the army.

“But I got involved with the wrong people and started bumming around, waking up in different places, I often didn’t know where I was.

“My daily intake was 12 bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale.”

But beyond the initial problems Dave had, the deeper issues of reintegrating into society are apparent.

A few years after leaving the army, in the early 90s, Dave was offered a job as a security guard.

He felt this was completely inappropriate for someone who has PTSD.

Dave said: “They were paying £2.50 per hour, it was minimum 65 hours per week.

“But it’s the nature of the job too, you have hours to stand there and think over all the things you’ve gone through.”

From speaking to Dave, it was clear that certain types of jobs are unsuitable for many veterans.

It is this particular knowledge Dave thought local organisations lacked.

He mentioned the NHS’ mental health facilities and a number of veterans’ charities.

Dave said: “There are loads of little groups, but they never come together and say here’s what we’re going to do.

“They promise the earth, but it all gets brushed under the carpet.”

Dave is in a much better place now. He has married and settled down in Wirral.

But he considers himself one of the lucky ones. It was only by meeting Shaun, an acupuncturist and ex-veteran, that he got his life back on track.

Shaun’s acupuncture therapy helped calm Dave down – which is crucial given the trauma Dave and so many other veterans describe, with their minds operating at a “hundred miles per hour.”

What Shaun thinks they need is someone to slow things down and turn their minds away from their experiences on the battlefield.

Shaun said: “What I do helps with sleep and stress. You have a video in your head with horrific scenes playing, what I try and do is keep their minds as free as possible.”

Shaun has access to stables in Eastham. One day he invited Dave and taught him how to look after the horses – grooming them and calming them down when they became agitated.

Dave found a great sense of purpose in this, it helped to focus his mind on something other than past conflicts.

Dave now takes Mike to the stables and said he can see Mike responding positively to it.

Dave said: “You can see a spring in his step, a sense of achievement.

“Lots of people are scared of horses, but grooming them can help calm you and the horse down.”

Of course, the solution to the lack of support for Wirral’s veterans must be about much more than visiting a stables in Eastham.

But it is a good example of the kind of activity which can stimulate people who have experienced long-term unemployment, and in many cases, a sense of worthlessness and incapability since leaving the army.

The other aspect of the support Shaun provides is a “listening ear”, someone who has served themselves and is able to listen to and understand what veterans go through.

Shaun said: “What you often find – particularly in men who have left the army, is that they struggle to express their emotions.

“They need that listening ear, someone to offload to.”

The other piece of the jigsaw for Shaun is education. He says that courses are needed on how to manage money, cooking and IT skills.

For many who have been in the forces all their adult lives, these are fundamental skills they have not had the chance to learn.

But Shaun was keen to point out that many veterans he deals with have so many skills which could be useful in the workplace, such as leadership, organisation and planning.

Cllr Chris Carubia, the Lib Dem member for Eastham, has been campaigning for greater support for veterans for two-and-a-half years.

Describing what he sees as the fundamental problem veterans suffer, he said: “It’s a mindset thing. Some of them take drugs or drink heavily, they feel detached from society.

“Veterans want to talk to veterans. People who have never served don’t understand it. I don’t understand a lot of it – but I have picked up stuff in the last few years.”

He had one key demand for the council, the NHS and all the charities involved with veterans support.

Cllr Carubia said: “They need a base. A place where they can be among their own kind and be signposted to the services they need.”

He said that adult education courses on skills they have not had to use in the army, such as managing their money, were needed as well.

Cllr Carubia called on the local authority and all those who can help to take the issue more seriously than they have in the past.

He said: “This seems to be one issue that has got swept aside and ignored for far too long.

“We’ve let it die away because it’s always been there.”

A Wirral Council spokesperson said: “Veterans with health and social care needs under the Care Act are supported for multiple issues including mobility needs, mental health and more.

“Additionally, all veterans seeking support are linked up to a variety of assistance options provided by our many specialist partner organisations and charities.

“Within the local authority, our teams endeavour to do as much as they can to support the veteran community in various ways.”

If you’re a veteran looking for support, Wirral Council recommends contacting veterans’ groups including the Wirral branches of the British Legion, Age UK Wirral’s ‘Joining Forces’ project, Help for Heroes and Wirral Veterans Community Interest Company.

NHS Wirral’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said it is committed to raising awareness of the provision of mental health support services and NHS care available to veterans living in Wirral.

They added that those registered as a veteran with an NHS GP, are able to benefit from veteran-specific services like prosthetics and mental health care.

Those registered are also entitled to priority access to NHS care (including hospital, primary or community care) for conditions associated with their time within the armed forces (service-related).

Talking Together Wirral- Wirral’s local Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service, offers a free, confidential talking therapy service on behalf of the NHS.

Talking Together Wirral has identified a Veteran ‘champion’ with experience of working in a service specifically for veterans.

The group has also established links with Veterans in Mind – who provide psychological therapy and recovery interventions to veterans, and Combat Stress – the UK’s leading charity for veterans’ mental health.

Unemployed veterans who receive health treatment in Wirral can also get help moving back into employment via The Poppy Factory (the country’s leading employability charity for veterans), based at The Stein Centre at St Catherine’s Hospital in Birkenhead.