Army to recruit soldiers with ADHD, autism and ME amid staffing crisis

Army to recruit soldiers with ADHD, autism and ME amid staffing crisis



Posted by theipaper

33 comments

  1. The Ministry of Defence will allow young people with ADHD, autism and chronic fatigue to join the armed forces in a bid to tackle the recruitment crisis, The i Paper can reveal.

    In a historic move designed to transform its intake of soldiers at a time of increasing global instability, the MoD has scrapped dozens of strict recruitment rules which meant hundreds of people a year wanting to serve were rejected.

    The i Paper has obtained the full revised list in the MoD’s “joint service manual of medical fitness”, which discloses the new medical requirements for those wishing to sign up as soldiers. Those suffering from a range of certain conditions will now be considered “fit until proven unfit” compared with previously being rejected.

    In October, Defence Secretary John Healey announced he was scrapping “outdated” policies in a bid to tackle the recruitment crisis engulfing the military and ending medical policies “unnecessary” blocking some sufferers of hay fever, eczema, and acne.

    But the complete list of medical changes goes far wider. As well as relaxing rules for recruits suffering from a range of mental health issues, recruits with a history of alcohol and drug misuse, high blood pressure and back pain will now no longer be automatically rejected. Other rules governing those who’ve previously had broken bones, gastric bands and suffer migraines or hypertension have also been loosened.

    According to the government, the British Army is the smallest it has been in 200 years, with more people leaving service than signing up. It is estimated that some hundreds of recruits are turned away each year due to a psychiatric condition.

    MoD data released earlier this year show that UK troop numbers have plummeted to the lowest levels since the early 1800s after a 38 per cent decline in recruits, with numbers in the army, navy and air force having dropped from 207,000 in 2000 to 131,000 in 2024.

    During the past five years, 125,000 recruits have been rejected from the army.

    Liberalising rules on ADHD and autism have been subject to campaigns from those inside the military and many recruits have been turned away from the forces due to issues relating to their mental health. It is estimated that there are up to 1.2 million autistic people and 2.2 million with ADHD in England.

  2. How on earth could they recruit a person with chronic fatigue?

    How on earth is “Sorry sergeant I’m missing PT today because I’m fatigued” going to go down?

  3. Great, now I can be killed for a government that doesn’t care about me

  5. I am severly autistic, i have always wanted to be responsible for artillery

  6. Having watched Forrest Gump, I am sure this will work great.

  7. Great, could do with less autistic BF4 pilots ruining the game! Give them a real drone to fly instead.

  8. I was in the Army for about 6 years, diagnosed with ADHD a few months ago.
    I think most squaddies have some form of Neurodivergence in all honesty…

  9. Tbh I’m certain all the soldiers I know have undiagnosed ADHD anyway. I’m surprised it’s a barrier to entry.

  10. Why not just raise the age. Plenty of people older than 32 that would join

  11. There will also have to be legalisation of weed for this idea to be effective. I say this because a very high percentage of neuro divergent folks are also potheads, a lot of us seem to gravitate towards it for some reason. So if they treated it the same as alcohol it would stop being a barrier for recruitment

  12. Surprised they haven’t started kidnapping the unemployed and homeless at this point.

  13. I’d wouldn’t be shocked if like 50% of young recruits were undiagnosed ADHD anyway… It’s a career that can easily appeal to those struggling with it.

    Having a life of following orders is much easier than living a life feeling like you can’t do anything right no matter how hard you try.

  14. Who would have thought, fighting for a country that couldn’t give a fuck about you, is becoming less popular.

  16. Would you be prepared to die for a government that hates you , lies to you and wants to enslave your family. If the politicians want a war they can go and fight it themselves. Having ADHD or Autism might make you slightly different to the general population but not stupid .

  17. Every guys i know that joined the army had ADHD traits but it was the 90s so it wasn’t really a thing

  18. “Army to prey on disabled people, taking advantage of the utterly shameful lack of support provided by the state to aforementioned disabled people”

    There.
    Fixed it for you.

  19. A career with the army can be a good fit for some nurodiverse traits

    Those that value order and routine, who need to know what they are doing and when

    Being part of an organisation where days are planned out and tasks are broken down into repeatable chunks can be exactly what they need to function

  21. But I can’t join because I got tested for tinnitus?

    And before anyone thinks that yeah, maybe tinnitus is a good reason to be denied: the results came back that my hearing was normal. I literally got rejected because I got tested for tinnitus.

  22. I was turned away because of my diagnosed ADHD, so fuck you army. All of a sudden you can’t meet the target, so now you’re begging people who were originally “unfit”

    How about pay people more and improve conditions?

  23. It used to be one in 3k people, now it’s like 1 in 35

  24. Well fuck me surprised. The bullshittery I put my smiley socks through to pass locker inspection, we all have it anyway!

  25. I never understand how empire would fall by itself in the past, seeing the silliness and corruption of western government, now I know.

  27. From what I remember reading it’s the fact they privatised recruitment that has led to a sharp drop in recruits.

    They need to let the army do its own recruitment like it used to.

  28. At this point they might create a “special division” force

  30. I was rejected in the past from the forces for what’s considered a very minor health issue, that wouldn’t affect performance or anything remotely to do with the job.

    In fact it was a past minor skin condition that has never resurfaced

    Considering this was decades ago – surely they could have seen being extremely strict with their acceptance criteria would lead to a bottleneck at some point

  31. Project 100,000, also known as McNamara’s 100,000, McNamara’s Folly, McNamara’s Morons, and McNamara’s Misfits.

    Nothing new under the sun.

  32. Sounds like they are getting desperate for future cannon fodder…..

  33. That’s actually quite a terrifying sounding army…

    Imagine what the war cry would sound like

Comments are closed.