Lest We Fail to See and Hear
Anzac Day, and our remembrances, must reflect a social health narrative.
EDIT AND APOLOGY: It has been brought to our attention that the photo that was originally used depicts an American soldier. We unreservedly apologise for the oversight, and have fixed the image to reflect an Australian experience.
Perhaps the last great act of service our soldiers render to our community is to demonstrate the vulnerabilities of our structure and our systems. The distress and isolation of our veterans is the distress and trauma of our community at large — but more concentrated, and more obvious.
The major spheres of suffering for our most impoverished, isolated, and disabled are the same and worse for many of our veterans. Most notable the spheres of Social Participation and connection, Housing security, Financial Stability, Support in Employment and over-representation in the Justice system.
The need to shift from the Bio-medical model, and traditional mental health to a Social Health model is at a critical mass, and this is no better represented than by our Returned Service Personnel.
Consider:
- 373 veterans between 2001 to 2016 suicided. — if under 30, the rate is much higher than the normal rate for men that age.
- Transitions to civilian life are largely unsupported once the officer is no longer within the direct Auspices of the defence employment structure.
- PTSD stats are highly indicative: the rate of PTSD in the Australian community in general is 5.2%, in serving personnel, a 8.7% is found — for those who are now decommissioned from service a rate of 17.7% is found
- We find extreme increases of other disorders in this group: depression (11.2%), and anxiety disorders such as panic disorder (5.4%), agoraphobia (11.9%) and social phobia (11%) — all significantly higher than comparative social groups in the Australian public.
- Only 25% of veterans seeking help remain engaged in evidence-based care; and this is likely due to a lack of social supports in maintaining care engagement.
It is very possibly this last factor where the most good can be done, and the bigger shifts in policy and structure are needed. Improved integration and co-ordination of services with greater outreach capabilities. Consider: whilst it is certainly true that the average soldier needs to master the arts of being organised, aware, proactive and prepared, it is nevertheless the case that the lifestyle of the military is highly co-ordinated. Appointments, objectives, outcomes and requirements are organised and handed to the soldier, by the higher-ups. Re-emerging into civilian life — house repairs, medications, doctors check-ups, mental health appointments, financial obligations….. these are all things that the civilian must plan for themselves, organise themselves, co-ordinate, pay for…..
A veteran leaving the defence force with PTSD (a diagnosis proven to greatly limit executive function and awareness of the commodity of time) now has to take on the extra loads of self-management, in EXTREMELY crucial areas, that were once considered part of a co-ordinated route that were consider mandatory, non-negotiable orders for them.
This is a profoundly accurate and concerning reflection of the same struggles undertaken by our common citizenry who have trauma, PTSD, BPD / CPTSD, ADHD or Autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and more. But the very real suffering of our veterans and service personnel shines a very stark light on this issue.
There is no point, or positive outcome, to medicating and therapizing our personnel (or our mentally ill and neurodivergent companions) unless we are also building a society that:
- Ensures adequate funding and integration for existing services
- Creates systems of co-ordination and synchronisation of those same services and outreaches.
- Creates Employment opportunity and recruitment services that are much more aimed at integration into the workplace fabric than they are at enforcing compliance on Centrelink’s behalf.
- Preventing the continued inaccessibility of housing
- Ensure that social skills and self-mastery and healed, encouraged, and supported before the Justice Department is EVER involved.
- Ensuring that social mobility and responsiveness is at the core of the Australian Social Structure.
- Decreasing the time of response to crises, escalation of symptoms, or escalation of risk to self.
To begin this process, we need as a society to become more proactive in asking questions and seeking solutions and taking the policy steps needed to enable advocacy organisations, and therapists in the community to work side beside with the general population of Australia in finding answers… because we are woefully under-informed in several areas.
In the broadest sense, there is a lack of information and/or data on:
- the health and welfare of the whole veteran population, beyond current serving ADF personnel and DVA clients
- differences between veterans with varying personal and service characteristics
- the medium- and long-term physical, mental and social impacts of military service
- how veterans compare with the wider Australian population
- the interactions that veterans have with Department of Defence, DVA and mainstream service providers
- the pathways veterans take to access services across different providers
- the factors and types of services that lead to improved health and welfare outcomes
- the groups of veterans who have the best, and poorest, health and welfare outcomes and the critical points for intervention
- the changes in needs and outcomes over time
- factors influencing the changes, highlighting interactions between the domains.
The eternal refrain of Anzac Day commemorations is ‘Lest We Forget’ but let us know fall into the trap of assuming that because we have laid wreaths, we have done enough — Because we have glorified the courage of our soldiery and condemned the horror that war ever is, we have somehow undertaken the act of healing wounds, sheltering souls or generally build the society that so many men and women died to provide us the chance to construct and strengthen.
Just for this week, and hopefully ever onward, let us aim to make a new refrain closer to that which our surviving service personnel and veterans really need….
‘Lest we fail to see and hear.’
If this article has raised issues for you or you’re concerned about someone you know, call Open Arms on 1800 011 046 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/health-of-veterans
https://www.dva.gov.au/about-us/overview/research/statistics-about-veteran-population
