Australia "Funding Blitz" to Help PTSD Veterans

Funding promised to improve treatment for defence force veterans’ mental health
Daily Telegraph Australia
Annika Smethurst, The Sunday Mail (Qld)
May 6, 2017

VETERANS battling mental health conditions will have free and immediate access to a greater range of services – including suicide prevention programs – under a multi- ­million-dollar funding blitz by the Federal Government.

The Government will spend $220 million on mental health, suicide, and programs to help personnel transition back to civilian life after serving.

The Sunday Mail can reveal that Tuesday’s Budget will include a $350 million boost to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, including the largest cash injection to mental health services in decades.

As part of the package, the Turnbull Government will provide more than $30 million for non-liability mental health services to ex-servicemen and women, who will no longer have to prove that their mental health condition is linked to their service before receiving treatment.

The Government currently provides former service members with free and immediate treatment for a handful of conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and alcohol and drug abuse.

The Government will also spend $10 million on suicide prevention programs, which will include a pilot program providing case management for veterans after they are discharged from hospital.

The landmark report found serving members were 50 per cent less likely to commit suicide than those of the same age who were not in the ADF.
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That is how Australia responded to veterans in crisis because "More than 40 military personnel and veterans were found to have taken their own life in the past year, the same figure as the number of Australians killed in Afghanistan during 13 years of war." 

Those are the same percentages we have here in the US but it is the flip side of that. US veterans are more likely to commit suicide than civilians. Top that off with younger veterans triple their peer rate.

Pretty much supports what has been reported for the last decade. It also shows how all of this "suicide awareness" has done nothing for the veterans needing help the most.