ARMY veteran Jo Hursey knows only too well the signs of post-traumatic stress and depression.

The former staff sergeant from Royal Wootton Bassett was diagnosed after she was trapped in a blazing vehicle while serving in Northern Ireland.

A leg injury resulted in her being unable to walk properly and she lives with anxiety, osteoarthritis, and a hearing impairment. She began drinking to forget and soon found herself in a very dark place.

And it's why she believes a new online suicide awareness training programme created by Help for Heroes could save lives.

Now recovered and in a job working with children who have suffered personal trauma, she said: “I could have done with what’s available now, about eight or nine years ago. It might have made a difference for me, and I hope this helps makes a difference for somebody out there.”

Jo, 46, who served for 24 years, understands the importance of being able to recognise the signs when somebody is suffering.

“I was really concerned about somebody who was coming into work and wasn’t themself. I was able to pick up the signs and I was able to alert their superiors who spoke to them. It turned out they had clinical depression. I just felt I’d helped to make a difference for that person.

“I also recognise the signs myself when it seems I’m going to unload. And I feel if somebody else were able to do that it would be perfect; that’s why this training could be invaluable for both those with dark thoughts and their closest family and friends."

The programme, which lasts just 30 minutes, has been completed by almost 1,700 people since its launch two weeks ago.

It was created by the armed forces charity after it was revealed in research carried out by YouGov that while one in three military veterans have felt suicidal in their lifetime, more than half of adult Britons admit they would not know how to help someone struggling with suicidal thoughts.

The survey also revealed 65 per cent of the veterans were more likely- 25 per cent - to turn to a family member or friend for support than to a trained professional.

The charity wants to bridge the shortfall in knowledge by creating suicide-safer communities. And it is offering free training, available to all, in the hope more people will be able to identify veterans needing support and know how to signpost them to available support services to prevent another life being lost.

Working with Zero Suicide Alliance it developed the online training course, available to the general public, that will help anyone to open up a conversation.

It advises on how to spot the signs, and to assess what someone is really saying when it comes to preventing death by suicide.

H4H services director Lis Skeet said: “As the research suggests, veterans often don’t speak to professionals first. This initiative aims to find a way of opening the conversation with someone they trust and training them to be able to spot the signs. In doing so we may well prevent lives being lost to suicide.”

The Wiltshire-based charity’s suicide awareness training is a part of its wider Suicide Awareness and Self-Help project, made possible through funding from the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust as part of the One is Too Many programmes, designed to reduce veteran suicides.

H4H, which started in 2007 to help wounded soldiers by building a dedicated swimming pool at Headley Court Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre, later expanded its services to help veterans in their homes and communities.

Visit helpforheroes.org.uk for details about the course and the charity.