Professor Ben Wadham featured among a panel of expert speakers addressing improved assistance for veterans, first responders and their families at the Open Door Engaging Research Workshop, which the Flinders Research Partnerships Team presented at the Repat Health Precinct on 23 November.

The workshop brought together a diverse array of service personnel, family members, service providers, support groups and researchers to discuss issues affecting the sector and identify research priorities that will support these groups.

Expert speakers covered a range of subjects including:

· Professor Ben Wadham, Director of Open Door, who spoke about key issues regarding research on services personnel and their families.

· Associate Professor Miranda van Hooff, from Military and Emergency Services Health Australia (MESHA), who spoke on “Military, Veteran and First responders research in South Australia: Insights and opportunities”.

· Chris Howie, from SA Ambulance Services, who spoke on “Priority 1: Welling issues impacting contemporary Ambulance Services. An SAAS perspective”.

· Professor Mark Halsey from Flinders University, who spoke about “Veterans: Key Challenges in Transitioning from prison to community”.

· David Everitt, from the Defence Force Welfare Association (SA), who spoke about “The value of Veterans and First Responders (Service Personnel)”.

· Dr Candice Oster from Flinders University, who spoke about “Social prescribing: Addressing the social needs affecting health and wellbeing”.

The workshop emphasised the importance of lived experience and co-design in research, and the two overwhelming issues raised were service-to-civilian transition and family support.

It was highlighted that transition would benefit from a social determinants approach to health which covered education, employment, housing and the wider question of identity, purpose and belonging.

Discussion also focused on how those who serve in relatively closed institutions create a new sense of who they are after service life, as well as the role research can play in understanding knowledge gaps and building mechanisms that communicate better with the service personnel community about available support services.

Key themes arising from the workshop also included a call to ensure research diversity and a holistic approach that considered biological, psychological and social factors.

Professor Wadham said the workshop will prove instrumental in informing future research areas underpinning his commitment to ongoing, partnered research and initiatives in South Australia, nationally and internationally.

Demonstrating his extensive track record and reputation in Veteran research, Professor Wadham was recently asked by the Department of Veteran Affairs to submit a response to inform a potential new approach to funding research and evaluation concerning veterans. The submission reflected input from across the Flinders research community and will help inform the research landscape in this area.

Thanks to The Hospital Research Foundation Group for their generous sponsorship of this event.

Click here if you would like to know more about Open Door Initiative, or you can email open.door@flinders.edu.au.