The Australian War Memorial's expansion money would be better spent on traumatised veterans | Paul Daley

Submitted by Paul Daley on Fri, 03/07/2020 - 11:45am

The statistics about veterans with post-traumatic stress are disturbing. Helping them would be worth spending $500m on

Perhaps the most emotive justification for the planned $500m expansion of the Australian War Memorial came from the man behind the plan, the revered institution’s former director Brendan Nelson.

In April 2018, announcing the expansion via an uncritical ABC story, Nelson said, “Whatever the cost is, as one man said to me, ‘We’ve already paid. We’ve paid in blood, and whatever the government spends on the Australian War Memorial ... will never be enough’.”

An estimated 46% of ADF members who had transitioned from full-time service within the past five years met 12-month diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder ... This level of 12-month disorder combined with the significantly greater severity of current self-reported symptoms of psychological distress, depression anxiety, anger, suicidality and alcohol use, particularly at subthreshold levels in the Transitioned ADF compared to the 2015 Regular ADF, places this population at significant risk of impairment and disability, highlighting the challenges of transitioning out of full-time military service.”

An estimated 75% of former ADF members met criteria for a mental health disorder prior to, during or after their military careers

A quarter were estimated to have met criteria for post-traumatic-stress disorder in their lifetime

More than 20% had suicidal ideation

29% had felt life was not worth living

8% had made a suicide plan

2% said they had attempted suicide.