The human cost of service

The Mapping Service and Transition to Self-Harm and Suicidality report made 18 recommendations to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide on how to strengthen protection for male and female ex-service members.

“Our report explores how and why some ex-service personnel reach points of despair and suicidality, while others find resilience and hope in their lives. We found that the process of transitioning into and out of the military service, as well as deployment itself, can lead to self-harm and suicidality,” said lead author, Professor Ben Wadham.

The recommendations followed 113 life course interviews with ADF members, and families of ex-service men and women who took their lives. The research focused on the effects of military culture, institutional abuse, and failures during and after service through delay or denial in managing health and well-being.

“When an institution is geared to equip every member with the capacity to prosecute violence, it generates the potential for violence with the ranks. Policy, leadership and culture can remediate this potential but the institution and its leaders need to acknowledge this in the first instance. To date, this remediation has not been achieved and military institutional abuse continues,” said Professor Wadham.

The report is significant for tackling a problem that has for decades been allowed to fester. It points to the need for independent scrutiny to ensure the ADF meets wider community standards of responsibility to care and support the health and wellbeing of all its members. Reviews and inquiries into military culture issues since the 1970s have so far failed to achieve meaningful reform.

The research and report would not be possible without the participants who courageously told their stories through a desire to help others.

Acknowledgements:  The report was authored by Professor Ben Wadham, Associate Professor James Connor, Dr Kellie Toole and Professor Emma Thomas, with research support from Dr Matthew Firth, Dr Karen Bird, Emily Haines, and Dr Elaine Waddell.

The research in this report complements, and is supported by, existing international research in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States of America. This research scaffolds the earlier groundbreaking government funded inquiry by Rumble, McKean and Pearce entitled A Review Into Allegations of Physical, Sexual, and Other Abuse in the ADF, produced in 2011.

Lead author and Director of Open Door, Professor Ben Wadham.