A recent spate of suicides among serving and ex-serving ADF personnel has veterans organisations shocked and fearful of ongoing mental health issues.
Key points:
- The past two months have seen at least 10 suicides in the veteran community, plus two more in August
- Veterans organisations are struggling to understand why there has been a spike in suicides
- Processing time delays at Department of Veteran Affairs and war crime allegations have been key stressors
There were at least 10 suicides in the veteran community in October and November, as well as two in August.
Four of those happened in Townsville, home to Australia's largest military base.
Three of those who died cannot be named for privacy reasons. The other nine are: Craig Earl, ex-member of 5 RAR (NT); Cody Langham and Hamish Gadd, 7 CSSB (Queensland); Braiden Russell, 3RAR (Queensland); Robert Phillips, RAAF Airfield Defence Guard (Queensland); Shane Holt, 8/9 RAR (Queensland); Josh Neumann who served with 4 Regt (Queensland); Leo Leppens, Military Police (Queensland) and Jules Gencarelli, ex-Navy.
It has led Tasmanian senator and veterans advocate Jacqui Lambie to say that veteran suicides should be treated as "one of Australia's most pressing problems".
Veterans organisations are struggling to understand why there has been a spike, and whether it's going to get worse.
"We're all very very concerned," said Townsville-based veterans advocate Chris Mills.
"We don't know why and we don't know what to do about it."
A Defence spokesperson told the ABC that three full-time serving members "are suspected to have died by suicide" since August this year.
But that figure does not include ex-service members.
"There is often no single cause or event that leads someone to take their own life," the Defence spokesperson said.
"Defence is committed to ensuring serving and ex-serving ADF members have access to the right support, at the right time, especially those who are vulnerable or at risk."
War crime allegations an added stressor
This year has thrown up two significant challenges to the wellbeing of the veteran community.
The first is a blowout in processing times for Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) claims because of COVID-19.
The second is the impact of the Brereton report into alleged war crimes committed by troops in Afghanistan.
Chris Mills helps run Townsville's Veterans Support Centre, a small group with about 75 serving and ex-serving members on the books.
"We don't know what the effect of the Brereton report is going to have on younger veterans," Mr Mills said.
"Honestly, we're scared.
"What we really get pissed off with is the removal of citations and things like that for people who are already dead."
There have been at least 500 veteran suicides in Australia since the start of the Afghanistan war — a number that dwarfs the number of lives lost on the battlefield, at 41.
Lieutenant General John Caligari (retired) heads up a veterans' community hub called The Oasis in Townsville, the city where he also once served as commander of the 3rd Combat Brigade.
The Oasis is designed to act as a starting point for veterans to connect with the specific services they need, which often include medical and mental health treatment, financial, housing and employment services.
General Caligari agrees the Brereton report is affecting how veterans' groups are operating.
"They're all concerned and they're all taking much more of an interest in their people, it's stepped up," he said.
"There's a lot more chatter going on.
"There's annoyance at the way the whole thing's been handled, in particular the fact that the Brereton report made a point of exonerating senior leaders and the issue over the honours and awards."
But General Caligari said it was difficult to say what's caused the spike in suicides in recent weeks.
"To be honest, I don't know," he said.
"It makes [veterans] very worried about their mates, it makes them realise they do need to check on each other.
"I know of the personal circumstances of three of these [recent suicides] and I know they had very complex personal circumstances which are not [directly] attributed to their military service.
A popular social media group run for and by veterans and serving ADF members, The Pineapple Express, has been cataloguing the suicide deaths in recent weeks and sharing tribute posts with the permission of affected families.
The group is pressing its members to keep in contact with friends who may have become socially distant.
"It’s great to see that the community is clearly becoming more aware and passionate about [mental health and suicide]; it demonstrates the start of a cultural overhaul," the group posted.
But veterans' groups are concerned that they are filling that void while the Department of Defence should be taking more action to stem suicides in the ranks.
It's not just about 'war wounds'
The causes of mental health problems among veterans are complex, and so are the solutions.
"It starts off with: what's the definition of a veteran?" General Caligari said.
Some soldiers and civilians believe only those who have seen combat qualify as a veteran.
But the DVA defines a veteran as anyone who has served a day or more in the ADF, regardless of whether they ever deployed overseas.
"Which leads to the next misconception — that veterans' mental health has got anything to do with combat operations," said General Caligari.
The idea that post-traumatic stress is caused by combat alone doesn't tell the whole story.
One of the recent suicides in Townsville was of Private Braiden Russell, a serving soldier in his early twenties who joined the Army in 2018 and who friends described as "everyone's mate".
"Actually, it's been demonstrated that there's a higher suicide rate among those who've not served on combat operations than those who have," General Caligari said.
"The real issue is the transition out of a very structured, orderly life into what I describe as the chaos of civilian street."
The suicide rate in 18-24 year-old men who have been medically discharged from the military in Australia is four times the national average for the same age group in the general public.
"You've just taken all their Christmases away from them.
"We spend a lot of time training them to join the Army and we don't teach them much about how to join civilian street.
"Some of them have never been there; they've left mum and dad at 18 and they didn't know what living on their own in society was like."
DVA delays worsen during pandemic, frustrating veterans
At Townsville's Veterans Support Centre, Chris Mills spends a lot of time helping veterans gain access to compensation or entitlements from the DVA.
He said 2020 has seen a huge blowout in the amount of time those claims are taking.
"And delays upset the veterans, really upset them, when they think nothing's happening, no-one cares."
There has been a direct link drawn between DVA delays and veteran suicides.
Earlier this year, a Victorian coroner recommended DVA be audited over its handling of compensation claims, after former Townsville soldier and Afghanistan veteran Jesse Bird died by suicide just weeks after his impairment claim was rejected.
General Caligari tells the story of one young veteran to illustrate how hard it can be for military personnel to navigate bureaucracy after they discharge.
The woman, who was "as smart as they come", had been sleeping in her car in central Townsville after struggling to find housing and employment.
It was only when another, older veteran walked past the car and saw Army-issue socks hanging out the window to dry that she was eventually connected to services that could help her.
General Caligari said long wait times for DVA compensation could be the last straw for many.
"It's got worse [in 2020], absolutely," he said.
"I don't know what the problem is, but whatever the problem is, they need to fix it."
Too many veterans organisations but not enough help
There's disquiet in parts of the veteran community about the proliferation of groups and charities that have been set up to help serving and ex-serving personnel.
General Caligari says there are more than enough services available to veterans in areas like housing, health and employment, but the difficulty for many veterans is finding them.
"In Townsville there's about 26 big ex-services organisations," he said.
"But they all know that the diggers don't know how to find them.
"Defence stopped letting them into the barracks [in Townsville] about 20 years ago because there were too many."
He said the Oasis acts as a single front door to direct veterans to the dozens of services available that they might not find on their own.
General Caligari says many veterans' mental health organisations are compelled by funding criteria to prove that they're reducing suicides, but intervention needs to come a lot earlier than that.
Paraphrasing philosopher Immanuel Kant, he said it can boil down to three things.
"No-one to love, nothing to do and nothing to look forward to," he said.
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2020-12-05 19:18:00Z
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