AFTER months of hearings across Australia, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has released its interim report, with 13 key recommendations for government.
The report highlighted a backlog of almost 42,000 compensation claims from veterans and serving Australian Defence Force personnel, warning that long waiting periods may lead to suicides.
The report recommended urgent streamlining of the Department of Veterans Affairs claims process and boosting staffing levels to end the backlog.
More current and former ADF members have died by suicide than in combat in the Afghan and Iraq wars, the government says.
The commissioners also said they were “dismayed” at the “limited” ways the federal government had reacted to previous reports relevant to the topics of suicide and suicidality among serving and former defence force members.
“We have identified over 50 previous reports, and more than 750 recommendations [since the year 2000],” the report said.
Commission chair Nick Kaldas said the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ (DVA) claims backlog was “unacceptable” and could lead to suicide and suicidality in some cases.
“Behind each claim is a veteran who needs support, and it is gravely important that this assistance is provided as quickly as possible — lives and livelihoods depend on it,” he said.
The commission has recommended the department be given until March 2024 to eliminate the claims backlog, and called on the government to streamline processes and ensure DVA had the necessary resources to do so.
The report found Australia’s veteran compensation and rehabilitation system was “so complicated that it adversely affects the mental health of some veterans” and it recommended the federal government introduce legislative reforms by the end of the year.
“There is no perfect or easy solution to the complexity of the veterans’ compensation and rehabilitation system, but there is an urgent need to fix it,” the report says.
“The Australian Government should urgently make the policy decisions needed to simplify and harmonise the framework for veterans’ compensation, rehabilitation and other entitlements.”
Catholic Deacon Gary Stone, who co-founded the Queensland-based Veterans Care Association said he was “delighted” to see the Royal Commission “embracing what we at Veterans Care have put forward into new ways of preventing suicide”.
Last year Deacon Stone presented the VCA’s Timor Awakening program as a holistic healing approach (mind, body and spirit) for veterans, particularly those suffering from PTSD.
.The report states: “The principles and contemporary theories of suicide prevention, postvention and lifetime wellbeing underpin our inquiry. We [the Royal Commission] continue to consider the best ways to apply these to all aspects of ADF service and beyond – and across the lifecourse of serving and ex‑serving members and their families”.
Deacon Stone said it was also uplifting to see the commission recommend the appointment of a body to oversee the recommendations being actioned.
“Most recommendations from the last seven Inquiries remain yet to be implemented , by the successive governments who ordered them,” he said.
