Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Veterans' Affairs Legislation Amendment (Mental Health and Other Measures) Bill 2014. This legislation will improve the mental health services for veterans and their families by expanding eligibility for non-liability healthcare for veterans and ex-service people, as well as access to the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Services.

The challenges facing the nation from veterans' battles with mental illness are real and our nation must prepare for those challenges. The coalition is fully committed to working with the veteran and wider community to ensure veterans needing treatment for mental health conditions can access that treatment.

It has been widely recognised that military personnel may experience mental health issues following deployment. Although much attention is paid to post-traumatic stress disorder—PTSD—evidence suggests that depression, anxiety, and alcohol-use disorders are just as common.

After the Vietnam War the Australian government established the Vietnam Veterans Counselling Service—VVCS. This service aimed to provide help for psychological and emotional difficulties as a consequence of military service. Today, VVCS is a primary provider of Australian community based mental health services to veterans and their families.

The service was recently renamed the Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service in recognition of the broader client group including contemporary, post-Vietnam, veterans and family members. VVCS operates within the Department of Veterans Affairs' mental health policy framework focusing on improving access to a comprehensive range of mental health services for veterans and their family members. There are currently 17 VVCS centres across Australia that provide both individual counselling and group programs to Australian veterans, their families, and eligible Australian Defence Force personnel.

Services are provided for a wide range of war and service-related issues such as relationship and family problems, alcohol and other drugs problems and psychological problems such as PTSD, depression, anxiety, problematic anger and sleep difficulties. Access to these services is based on self and/or family member referral, or medical practitioner referral. Counselling is provided by registered psychologists or social workers across a range of programs that include individual therapy, couples/family therapy and case management.

Informal client feedback indicates that the counselling interventions provided by VVCS are effective, but there has never been an independent, longitudinal examination of the mental health outcomes. As Paul MacPhie, the vice-president at my local VVCS at Toowong said, 'There is certainly a need to be looking at improved mental health services and support for our veterans, especially those now returning from the Middle East.' The Toowong VVCS provide a wonderful service, and they say that these amendments are much needed.

The United States observed that veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom were returning with high rates of mental health disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse disorders and a sequel of traumatic brain injury—which is a pathological condition resulting from a disease. Of those veterans who enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration, VHA, services from 2002 to 2008, 37 per cent received mental health diagnoses, including 22 per cent with PTSD, 17 percent with depression and 10 percent with substance use disorders. These main mental health conditions can limit readiness for civilian employment as well as contribute to impaired job performance among those working.

Available data shows that returning Middle East veterans have considerably higher unemployment rates than people in the general population. It is suspected that rates of unemployment in this veteran population are even higher because of mental health conditions. Thus, while most Middle East Veterans are young adults at a developmental stage emphasising work or career development, many are experiencing unemployment and concomitant mental health challenges that may contribute to their unemployment. With high rates of mental health conditions and unemployment, and the over-representation of veterans in the homeless population, effective vocational services to help veterans return to the workforce and increase income are urgently needed.

Homeless veterans cite mental health treatment and job assistance among their top six unmet needs. VHA has provided vocational services within its mental health programs since 1976, guided by the concept of work as a bridge to recovery from the effects of mental health disorders and as having a necessary role in the adult development stage of life. In Australia, the Department of Veterans' Affairs has been quite proactive in assisting with veterans' mental illness and supporting them to gain employment. This bill is an extension of that support.

As at March 2013, the department was supporting about 148,700 veterans with one or more service related disabilities under the Veteran's Entitlements Act 1986, the Military and Compensation Act 2004 or the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988. Of these, about 46,400 had an accepted mental health disability. The most common conditions are generalised anxiety disorder, depression, stress disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol dependence. Some have more than one accepted disability. While veterans of contemporary operations currently constitute only a small percentage of the overall mental health cohort, they are a growing number and must be considered in overall data patterns and trends.

The coalition government has a four-pillar approach to veterans affairs: One, recognising the unique nature of military service; two, maintaining a stand-alone Department of Veteran' Affairs; three, tackling mental health challenges facing veterans and their families; and four, providing adequate advocacy and welfare support for veterans and their families.

This legislation assists the government to deliver its agenda for veterans and their families. I commend the action of this bill—standing up for those who stood up for us, our rights and our freedom.

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