Dr Bernadette Boss, interim National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention, recently visited Adelaide as part of national roundtable consultations with key stakeholders from the veteran community, Defence and research experts – and Flinders University’s Professor Sharon Lawn and Associated Professor Ben Wadham were invited to attended these sessions

Flinders has a long history of veteran research, and the pair were asked by the Commissioner to share their views on why veterans suicide and what can be done to prevent veteran suicide.

Professor Lawn notes the great importance of these discussions, as more Australian veterans have lost their lives by suicide than have been killed on active duty since the beginning of the Vietnam War.

“It’s a national tragedy, given their commitment to serve the Australian community through defence, natural disasters, COVID and many other roles,” says Professor Lawn.

Professor Lawn recently led research for the Department of Veterans Affairs, evaluating a national 2-year pilot Wellbeing and Support Program (WASP) for 2004 veterans with complex mental health and/physical health needs.

Of note, veterans in this pilot were four times more likely that the general population to have a history of suicidality/threat of self-harm, and some 300 times more likely to have a history of suicide attempt/ self-harm requiring clinical intervention.

Following the Roundtable consultations, Professor Lawn presented the positive outcomes of the evaluation at a national forum on veteran suicide organised by the National Commissioner on 10-11th March.