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News Defence Mental Health to Face Review

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Awakening

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From The Age Newspaper in Melbourne

Traumatised diggers 'denied proper mental care'

Nick McKenzie
March 8, 2008

THE Federal Government has ordered a review into the mental health support given to soldiers, amid estimates that up to 10% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are suffering from trauma caused by war.

The concession by Defence Personnel Minister Warren Snowden that some diggers were "falling through the cracks" came as leading veterans' mental health experts and the Returned and Services League claimed that an increasing number of traumatised soldiers were being ostracised and denied proper care.

The director of the Australian Centre for Post-Traumatic Mental Health, Professor Mark Creamer, said defence mental health services were "massively under-resourced". He estimates that 10% of veterans have mental health problems.

And the director of a Townsville clinic that treats most mentally ill veterans in Queensland, Dr John Rogers, warned that some soldiers who sought help and were given lesser duties were denigrated by others as members of the "spastic platoon".

RSL chief Major-General Bill Crews said vulnerable soldiers experienced further stress when dealing with hostile unit level commanders. They also faced difficulties when applying for financial support from veterans' affairs.

Mr Snowden said the review would examine the mental health support offered to soldiers throughout their career and after they left the Australian Defence Force.

"No system is perfect, let me put it that way … and people will fall through the cracks. The extent to which people are falling through the cracks, I can't say. There is no question that some people are experiencing poor treatment," he said.

A Defence Department spokesman separately acknowledged that the ADF was suffering from a shortage of mental health providers.

The criticisms come as a returned Australian soldier who shot an Iraqi woman and her young son in 2005 revealed his struggle to get proper support in dealing with the trauma linked to his time in Iraq.

The soldier, Ben, 23, was medically discharged from the army in November suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. He was 20 when he fired at a car in Baghdad after its driver failed to respond to requests to stop. The shooting severely injured Iraqi mother Lamyaa al-Saadi, and left her son Ahmed blind in one eye. The family is suing the Federal Government.

A month before this shooting, Ben's vehicle had been targeted by a suicide bomber. He told The Age he had been offered almost no counselling in Iraq.

He also felt that he was in some way being blamed when he was later asked to donate money to the woman he had shot. A defence spokesman described the request as "a whip-round in the finest Australian tradition".

After the incident, the ADF described the shooting as "appropriate in the circumstances".
Ben's lawyer, John Cockburn, said he was disgusted at the lack of any serious effort to retrain the soldier for a life outside the army.

In response, the ADF spokesman said that in the coming months the department's career transition service would be reviewed.

Mr Snowden stressed that the majority of defence personnel received good health care.

The ADF spokesman also defended its mental health strategy. He said that 0.29% of the around 18,500 defence personnel who had served in the Middle East had been discharged with mental health illness, possibly related to their overseas service.

Professor Creamer stressed that the majority of returning soldiers had no problems, but for the minority who did, there were insufficient health professionals and inadequate screening services available.

"There is a number of things that the Australian Defence Force could and should be doing better. When someone is brave enough to stick up their hand and say they have a problem, it is vital they get easy access to quality care. Sometimes that is happening, but often I think it is not," Professor Creamer said.

The director of Austin Health's Veteran Psychiatric Unit, associate professor Mal Hopwood, said the ADF had undertaken to improve mental health services, but "there are still significant gaps".
Dr Rogers said the 20 to 30 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans he had treated were "the tip of the iceberg". He warned that some senior officers did not encourage soldiers to get help because they feared it reflected poorly on them.

He said an example of some of the appalling attitudes to those suffering mental illness was the description of those on lighter duties as being members of "the spastic platoon". Such denigration made some soldiers with problems reluctant to come forward.

Dr Rogers said the struggle to get benefits and entitlements for mentally ill soldiers increased their suffering.

"It is a nightmare and one of the major day-to-day problems because it triggers off agitation and panic and I think both suicidal and homicidal feelings," he said.

General Crews said some traumatised soldiers refused to seek help because they knew they would be ostracised and the process of applying for financial support was still beset with problems.

"We have got a fair way to go to understand why things are not happening properly. Some people are getting help but it is sometimes coming too late," General Crews said.
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Veterans seeking counselling can call 1800 011 046.
 
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