Thursday 16 September 2021

New Questions About "Detecting for Veterans"

 

The twitter account for Jason Massey, former 1st Battalion Light Infantry Veteran, now CEO of the organisation "Detecting for Veterans" is down. The crowdfunding appeal page announces: 

Detecting For veterans Community Interest Company (CIC) is a tri service to bring Armed forces veterans together to share awareness of PTSD and other issues from serving in the Armed forces by using Metal detecting as therapy. We have over 5500 supporters on our Facebook page and 3500 are civilians who support our aim. We have helped Veterans who do suffer from PTSD and other issues from serving in the Armed forces by suppling Metal Detecting equipment to use as therapy.[...] The fundraising amount will by x10 set ups to run courses for any Armed forces veterans sent to us by Mental health charities, also a vehicle is needed for my self to get around the UK to organise events and to run courses in the local areas. [...] Also I charge for civilian to come to metal detect and so far raised £14,000 for The Veterans Charity and Talking2minds.
The company was formed in 2017 and claims that "metal detecting has been proven to help war veterans deal with the debilitating issues associated with PTSD". It seems they claim to actually have some kind of a report that 'proves' this claim. It should be noted that this is the same group that was claiming that the Head of the PAS had declared that artefact hunting was "good for archaeology", a claim the person involved denies (see Andy Brockman, 'A second metal detecting rally promoter accused of misrepresnting the views of the PAS, The Pipeline July 4th 2021). As for the claim, I really do not see why this one activity (looting the archaeological record for collectable items to keep) is in any way better suited for this purpose than less archaeologically-destructive hobbies in a way that birdwatching, voluntary work on canals, stamp collecting, gravestone recording, bell ringing, home brewing, gardening and hang gliding etc. don't. Some have seen this claim as a 'front' for just running a business involving pay-to-dig artefact hunting rallies for the benefit of metal detectorists the majority of which are not at all suffering any form of PTSD caused by them formerly being or being a member of the Armed Forces.

The genesis of the idea seems to have come from the company 'Beyond the Bleep' set up with the Veterans' mental health charity - Combat Stress in October 2014 by Derek McLennan [possibly with Minelab involvement]. Among its other activities, the company involved veterans in artefact hunting on mental health benefits grounds. The company is now dissolved. In the US KellyCo metal detectors produced a text in April 2020 'Metal Detecting as a Tool for PTSD Recovery' , and it cites a recent paper by a group of authors, including Helsinki Gang member Andres Dobat.* In the US, artefact hunting was being proposed as a PTSD therapy in 2015 (KPLC 'Local wounded veterans use 'Warrior Detecting' as trauma therapy', Sept 15 2015) and similar claims have been made (Jul 7, 2017) for underwater metal detecting (this one sponsored by Garrett detectors). It is still going on Megan Swift, 'Military veterans benefit from 'therapeutic' archaeological fieldwork at Fort Ligonier' Trib Total Media Aug. 7, 2021.

The DFV commercial artefact hunting rally Detecting For Veterans CIC Summer Rally in Lincolnshire was scheduled for 9th -12th September 2021.
This is a full 3 days detecting on 800 Acres of very historical land once belonging to the Knights Templar.
The land is undetected and it will be a mixture of stubble and disc land.
Trade Stands will be on site, Crawford's, NCMD, Treasure Hunting Magazine, Coin Dealers and other stands will be in attendance.
Tickets are £65 each, that includes camping. Under 16s Detecting are £30 and non- detectorists are £10 each.[...]
At the end of August 2021 it was announed:
Sadly it appears Jason Massey has suffered a stroke and is in hospital. Best wishes for his speedy recovery. Sadly it does appear the event has been postponed until a later date. Check out their Facebook page for the last info though in case there are any further developments
This morning, following on from this, certain unsupported allegations were made about "Detecting for Veterans CIC"  concerning financial governance and transparency. They involve a story of "a team of Private Investigators" and a stakeout of Mr Massey's Taunton home.  No doubt this will be discussed further in the near future. This is following on from earlier reports of irregularities in the NCMD and some more allegations concerning a metal detectorist acting as treasurer for an archaeology group a while back. Of course nobody is in metal detecting for the money, are they?


*Dobat A.S., Wood, S.O., Jensen, B.O., Schmidt, S. and Dobat, A.S. (2020), “I now look forward to the future, by finding things from our past…” Exploring the potential of metal detector archaeology as a source of well-being and happiness for British Armed Forces veterans with mental health impairments', International Journal of Heritage Studies, 26:4, 370-386 .

10 comments:

Brian Mattick said...

Bravo for suggesting a walk in the country is not as good for you as a walk in the country with a metal detector. It's not. Looking up and around is far better. As most people know.

Unknown said...

You need to ask questions, why a event was held without the permission of the director of Detecting For Veterans CIC who was ill at the time and members charged extra for the same event when the event was postponed due to the event owner being ill. Possibly the biggest day light hawking event happened..

Me said...

What a load of rubbish, the wife Sarah Massey was fully aware this was going to happen to raise funds for the family whilst Jason Massey was supposedly ill.

Paul Barford said...

What does that even mean? Surely, the original 65 quid a head participation fee that was presumably already in the company accounts was calculated on the basis that the "CEO of the company" would get paid from that for organizing the event, and then the rest would go to the landowner + charity. No?

So with something like 32500 quid in the cashbox, there was ample to pay the CEO's wages for the time he was ill, so why the reported extra? It's all very unclear, not helped much by certain characters deleting their Facebook and twitter accounts that could be used to explain the issue.

And "Unknown" (please put your name on your posts) the event takes place with the permission of the landowner (ONLY) and not that of "the director of Detecting for Veterans CIC".

Paul Barford said...

What part of "WRITE.YOUR.NAMES" don't you metal detectorists understand?

Eh?

Difficult? Problems spelling your own names or something?

Who opens an account called "me" or "unknown" just to present information about somebody else's problems? What's the idea?

Unknown said...

Well I hope for his sake that this is all BS, I seen the photograph of him taken after he supposedly had a stroke and looked in good health. I donated 2 Brand New Pro Vanquish machines to the cause, supplied by "Unearthed UK". I had them delivered direct to his address. If he has ripped off the charity then he should be made an example of through the courts. His wife must have known as well, I feel sorry for the kids

Unknown said...

I've been part off D4V since the start. I have been in contact with the police about what has been going on. I now know the post's been putting about on social media are not true about Jason Massey and his local police and his legal team are pressing for prosecution for those involved. There is more to this story in which I can not go into as I'm helping the police with this. All I can say is a lot of people owe Jason Massey so serious apologise.

Paul Barford said...

Well "unknown", we all look forward to seeing the outcome.

So who are the police looking to prosecute now and what for? Just a vague indication from those who know would help understand what is happening.

It would help the general public (whose heritage it is you lot are taking) get a better angle on the whole affair if Mr Massey had not deleted his social media accounts the moment this story broke in September.

Let's have more transparency - if public money is (now, you say) being used to "prosecute" the accusers of Mr Massey, the public deserves to know about that too. The police are not there to sort out disagreements within a minority hobby of heritage grabbers and those who want to make a business out of it.

If police money is being used to sort out a dispute within the artefact grabbing community, the public have a right to be kept informed where their money is going and not be kept in the dark.

By the way, I do not accept anonymous comments. Any reply you attempt must have a name on it or be rejected. We are not playing games.

Paul Barford said...

Mr/Ms "anonymous", use your real name, or take it elsewhere.

Paul Barford said...

I really do not know, what part of "write your name" under any comments you wish published here about Mr Massey or his Detecting for Veterans do you NOT UNDERSTAND?
Write.
Under.
Your.
Name.

See notes for commenters that's been up here twelve years... http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2010/12/note-to-comment-posters.html - point 7 (potentially 9)

 
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