Australian Police Get Back Up For Life

Back Up for Life program fills gaping hole of support for ex-police officers
Canterbury-Bankstown Express
Danielle Buckley
July 10, 2017

“There’s a loss of identity, loss of purpose, value and their whole lifestyle,” Insp Bousfield said. “My hope for the program is that when police officers leave the policing profession there’ll always be an organisation that recognises their profession and maintains connectivity with police force.”

Chairman of NSW Police Legacy Inspector Paul Bousfield and Back Up for Life mentor Heath Thompson at Neptune Park, Revesby. Picture: Carmela Roche

When Heath Thompson left the NSW Police Force after 23 years, he thought “What am I going to do now?”

“It’s like being in jail,” Mr Thompson said.

“You’re institutionalised to think you can’t do anything apart from being a police officer.”

Like a lot of ex-police officers, Mr Thompson struggled with the transition from cop to civilian, suffering post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues when he left Campsie LAC in 2011.

But back then, there was no support.

Fast forward six years and a new NSW Police Legacy initiative, Back Up For Life, is providing post-service support for former NSW police officers and their families.
read more here

Veteran Remembers the Day Sgt. Johnnie Mitchell Wahl Died

Vietnam Veteran meets fallen soldier’s family
Port Lavaca Wave
By MELONY OVERTON
Jul 5, 2017

Holmes’ fellow soldier and friend Sgt. Johnnie Mitchell Wahl was shot in the neck and died in Holmes’ arms.

It was Thanksgiving Day 1969. Weldon Holmes and his platoon were in Quang Tri Province in Vietnam not too far from the demilitarized zone.

“We were sitting around arguing over who was going to get the peaches and the pound cake out of the C-rations that went along with the turkey and dressing. The lieutenant came and said, ‘Why don’t you all load up,’” into armored personnel carriers, Holmes said.

Leading up to that fateful day, Holmes had facilitated seven days of R and R (rest and recuperation) to Sydney Australia to celebrate his 21st birthday Nov. 20.

“I really didn’t want to come back, but I couldn’t see leaving friends and brothers that…you get real close when you have to depend on somebody to protect your life 24/7. I got back to my unit on Nov. 23,” he said.

The platoon watched as jets 3,000 meters away flew their missions.

“You could still feel the ground shake. We got off (out of the carriers) to pick up bodies (of the enemy). We tried to do the right thing by leaving them for their families because the Viet Cong came from that area,” he said. “Arms were here. A leg was there next to a torso mutilated from explosions.”

“I was the only one to call them about Johnnie. They were told his whole company had been wiped out and that the ones who died were missing in action, but that made me mad because he (Johnnie) was never missing in action. We didn’t leave them behind because their bodies would have been mutilated so badly if we did,” Holmes said.read more here

Veterans Fight to Save Club After Theft from Treasurer

Veterans fight to save Upwey-Belgrave RSL after treasurer stole from club
Herald Sun
Ashley Argoon
June 30, 2017

WAR veterans are fighting to save their local Returned and Services League, $400,000 in the red after the treasurer stole from them.

War veterans Peter Hay, 84, David Eaton, 72, and Bob Stevens, 49, worry about the future of the Upwey-Belgrave RSL. Picture: David Caird

Pokies addict Marion Mills stole from the Upwey-Belgrave RSL — which has refused to install any pokies — to spend on her gambling and drinking.

But managers fear it may not see next Anzac Day.

“We’re struggling,” Vietnam veteran and Upwey-Belgrave RSL president David Eaton said.

“The problem is you trust people and then you get burnt.”

In April, Mills, 62, was sentenced to four months’ jail, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to stealing $28,918.10 while treasurer from 2010-13.

But she had originally been accused over a sum almost three times that, and also failed to pay bills or staff superannuation, taking the total to about $400,000.
read more here

Australia: Police Officers Struggle for Help With PTSD

Late policeman’s brother vows to help those struggling
Border Mail Australia
BLAIR THOMSON
1 Jul 2017

THE BROTHER of an Albury policeman who took his own life after a battle with post traumatic stress disorder is helping others in the force who are struggling.

MESSAGE: Patrick Seccull says those battling PTSD should know that there is help out there, and that life can be good despite how bad things can get fighting the illness.

Tony Seccull, 41, followed in the footsteps of his older brother Patrick when he joined NSW Police as a young man.

The father of one lost his battle at his Burrumbuttock property on February 1, leaving a gap in his large family that will always be there.

Patrick, who has also worked as an Albury policeman and has had his own fight with the disorder, said his brother died about five years to the day after his discharge from the force.

By the end of his service, Tony was worn out and just wanted to retire without the grinding stress caused by the police insurance company.

Mr Seccull links his brother’s PTSD to an incident early in his career, the full impact of which didn’t surface until a firearms training course on the Border sometime around 2010.

Tony had been stationed at Nyngan in central NSW in the early 2000s and like many times before, he was called to a domestic dispute.

But it was no ordinary call out, with a farmer firing shots from a high-powered rifle at Tony and his partner, leaving them pinned down.
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PTSD Australia: Police Officer Talks About Moment Everything Changed

'I just wanted to wrap my arms around her': Police officer reveals the moment she climbed into the boot of a car with a dying mother who had been trapped for four days
Daily Mail Australia
By Sam McPhee
18 June 2017

Narelle Fraser had a breakdown following the discovery of Maria Korp and developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result. She has quit the police force and is speaking out on PTSD in an attempt to encourage others to address the illness.

Narelle Fraser (pictured) was the first police officer on the scene and could not find Maria Korp's pulse

Policewoman has opened up about finding a near-dead woman in 2005
Narelle Fraser discovered mother-of-two Maria Korp in the boot of a car
Fraser cradled Korp who she thought was deceased after being in car four days
She felt Korp breathe and immediately rushed her to hospital
Korp was placed in coma but passed away several months later

A Victorian policewoman has relived the moment she discovered what she thought was the lifeless body of a missing woman in the boot of a car.

Narelle Fraser found mother-of-two Maria Korp in the back of a Mazda 626 in Melbourne on the 13th of February, 2005.

An emotional Fraser climbed in the boot to cradle the body, only to feel Korp breathe before rushing her to hospital.

Maria Korp was placed in a medically induced coma but would never regain consciousness and died several months later.

Police allege her husband, Joe Korp, and mistress, Tania Herman, plotted killing Maria. Joe committed suicide on the day of his wife's funeral, while Tania pleaded guilty to her murder.
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Mefloquine Residual in Veterans Back in News Out of Australia

This report is about Australia veterans but they are just as human as US veterans are and fighting for the truth.
Veterans say report on anti-malaria drug mefloquine downplays side-effects
The Guardian
Melissa Davey
June 2, 2017

Former soldiers say they were not properly informed of potential hazards, including neurological problems, suicidal thoughts and nightmares

“The main issue of concern is the chronic health effects experienced by the 5,000 personnel given mefloquine and tafenoquine since the early 1990s,” McCarthy said. “Drug regulators including the US Food and Drug Administration warn that mefloquine is able to cause neuropsychiatric side effects that may persist or become permanent.

An unpublished government report on an anti-malarial drug given to thousands of Australian soldiers has been criticised by a decorated war veteran for downplaying the drug’s side-effects.

Mefloquine, also known as Lariam, was given to soldiers deployed to Bougainville and Timor-Leste more than 15 years ago as part of clinical trials comparing its efficacy to doxycycline, an antibiotic and the first-line medication for malaria prevention in the Australian defence force.

Since then there have been well-documented questions raised about the consent process for the soldiers involved in the trials, and veterans have said they were not properly informed of mefloquine’s potential side-effects. Veterans have also spoken of symptoms including suicidal thoughts, hallucinations and nightmares which they attribute to being on the drug, sometimes emerging years later. They have accused researchers of downplaying the extent of severe side-effects such as neurological issues.
read more here

Other reports going back to 2008

VA ISSUED WARNING ON LARIAM IN 2004
ARMY CURBS PRESCRIPTIONS OF ANTI-MALARIA DRUG MEFLOQUINE
WHEN THE CURE IS WORSE THAN THE DISEASE MILITARY SCRAMBLE TO LIMIT MALARIA DRUG
In 2013 Green Berets and other Special Forces stopped using it.

Australia Veterans Joining Together to Save Lives of Other Veterans

'He had 10 knives and a machete': The unvarnished truth about veteran suicides
Sydney Morning Herald
David Wroe
May 13, 2017

Andrew "Mung" Perry, an Air Force sharpshooter who had spent eight months in Afghanistan watching the backs of other Australian troops, tried eight times to kill himself after he returned, with some incidents requiring police tactical response teams. On the eighth attempt, in December 2015, he took his life.

One of the good moments Kamaia Alexander had with her stepfather after he came back from Afghanistan was when he was in hospital recovering from a suicide attempt. That day was like the old times when they had joked and played pranks together.

Andrew "Mung" Perr was an Air Force sharpshooter who had spent eight months in Afghanistan.

"We made his escape plan. Our plan was to get the food trays and skate our way out. We forgot that home was actually uphill, not down. It was a good plan in our heads," she says.

But there were mostly bad moments, like one afternoon in bushland north-east of Darwin. Alexander was just 18 at the time.

"He had 10 knives and a machete on his person. He had carved some words into his legs," she says.

"We spent from 4.30 in the afternoon to midnight to slowly convince him to get rid of each knife.

"Once I got him down to one knife, I got him to drop it and I ended up just lying on the dirt with him and giving him a hug and letting him cry."
read more here


Australian veterans joining forces in the fight against military suicide
Sydney Morning Herald
David Wroe
May 13, 2017

On New Year's Day, Garth Camac got a call from a former soldier under his command telling him that a mutual friend was in trouble.

Garth Camac served on two tours of Iraq and was also commander of a unit that lost five of its members in Malaysia in 1993. Photo: Robert Shakespeare

The mutual friend, also an ex-soldier, had taken a potentially fatal cocktail of drugs. He was also threatening to kill himself. He'd just passed out while on the phone to the man who was now calling Camac for help.

Camac, who has a lengthy history working with struggling ex-military personnel and is now associated with a group called Warriors Return, hit the phones and summoned the cavalry in Queensland.

"I was able to co-ordinate police and ambulance and other mates to get involved and get him into ICU and he's now recovering well," Camac recalls.

Three months later, another case emerged. Ashley Meek, a veteran who'd served in Iraq and East Timor and gone on to become a South Australian policeman, had posted a Facebook message stating "F--- the police, F--- the Army" and indicating he was going to kill himself.

Though Camac didn't know him, they had at different times served in the same battalion. Once again, a network of veterans kicked into gear, contacting emergency services and each other to be ready to provide support. State police were already on the case, but this time everyone was too late. Meek walked into the hospital in the small town of Cowell, 500 kilometres west of Adelaide, and killed himself in front of medical staff.
read more here

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.
read more here

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.

Walking off the War Within Down Under

Walking off the War Within challenge to shine spotlight on post traumatic stress disorder
NT News
ELLIE TURNER
April 16, 2017

Mr Shanahan reached the War Memorial on North Tce, in Adelaide, on Anzac Day, 2015.

But four months ago he lost his battle with the darkness and took his own life, leaving behind Kosha and their two children Lila, 8 and Ari, 4.

Dani Eveleigh and Paula Potts are taking part in the Walk Off the War Within challenge. PICTURE: Patrina Malone

FIREFIGHTER Nathan ‘Mule’ Shanahan marched 400km to battle his invisible demons and get people talking about the “black dog” to raise a message — not money.

His wife Kosha was teasing him when she suggested it as they were driving home to Mildura, Victoria.

“He wanted to do something big,” she said.

“When I said he should walk to Adelaide, he was like ‘yep, that’s what I’m going to do’.”

But donations came pouring in when mates, former colleagues and strangers found out about his plan because they wanted to join the colossal journey in their own way, helping the former Australian Army soldier actively combat post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety in 2015.

Walking Off the War Within — Mr Shanahan’s solo march in army fatigues and boots carrying a 20kg pack from Mildura to Adelaide — raised more than $30,000 for Soldier On, a charity that supports Australian servicemen and women and emergency service workers with physical and psychological wounds.
read more here

Australia: Police Officer Finds Healing PTSD Better Than Dying

Post-traumatic stress disorder: NSW police sufferers estimated to number 1600
The Sunday Telegraph
BEN PIKE
April 8, 2017

IN a career as one of our top cops, Luke Moore had seen it all — and finally he couldn’t bear to see any more.

Suffering the debilitating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, Det Supt Moore jumped from the 13th floor of a hotel, expecting to die.

But things didn’t go according to plan. After plunging 40m, Mr Moore crashed through the lid of a skip filled with linen, cushioning his fall and saving his life.

While he shattered his pelvis, hip, and elbow and broke his leg, arm and back, he suffered no permanent brain or organ damage and is once again able to walk.

Mr Moore, 49, who remained conscious throughout the ordeal, said: “When I was laying there it was instant relief in terms of I knew that I was not going back to work.

“I knew instantly that I did not want to die. I am not a spiritual person at all but I’m very conscious of how lucky I am and what an opportunity it is to go on and live life.

“It puts in perspective how good it is to be alive.”

Now he is hoping his story will encourage others officers suffering PTSD — a crippling psychological condition that currently affects an estimated 1600 officers in NSW — to seek help.
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Police Officers Remembered and Honored After Suicide in Australia

Tears and relief as NSW Police moves to remember officers who took their lives
ABC News Australia
Exclusive by the National Reporting Team's Lorna Knowles
Posted about an hour ago

In 2013, Deborah Bryant's husband Ashley made a harrowing call to triple-0.

Key points: Police who've suffered trauma on the job and took their lives will now be remembered on the wall
The shift in NSW Police policy is the result of campaigning from loved ones
Retiring police chief Andrew Scipione used his last months in office to change the criteria for inclusion on the wall

PHOTO: NSW is the first state to include officers who've taken their lives in their memorial. (ABC News: Benjamin Sveen)

The distraught former police officer told the operator: "I'm about to take my life. I suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, I can no longer live with the trauma of it.

"I want this to go to the coroner. There needs to be more things put in place for the partners of those that suffer, 'cause I suffer and so do the partners and there has to be more done with them.

"I have no more to say."

Those were his final words — the end of a long battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following more than two decades as police officer in the Lismore area, in northern New South Wales.

This week, his widow gathered with others to see her husband officially recognised and honoured for his service and sacrifice.

Ms Bryant is among four women who have successfully campaigned to have the names of police officers who took their lives following trauma on the job included on the NSW Police Wall of Remembrance.
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Australian Veteran's Life Saved After 5th Suicide Attempt by Daughter

'They train you to go to war, not come home'
Daily Mail
By Anneta Konstantinides For Daily Mail Australia
PUBLISHED:18 March 2017

Doctors missed mother-of-four army veteran's post traumatic stress for a decade despite FIVE suicide attempts... and how her daughter saved her life

Andrea Josephs, 43, enlisted in 1991 and served during East Timorese Crisis
Was medically discharged in 2004 following a sexual assault and court hearing
Took doctors 10 years to diagnose PTSD; mistook for postnatal depression
Andrea's final suicide attempt came in 2015 as she struggled with symptoms
Her daughter then made a tribute video to show she was proud of mum's service
Inspired idea behind Matilda Poppy, which will raise awareness for veterans

Andrea (pictured centre with her four daughters) said some of her PTSD symptoms were derived from the fear that she could not protect her girls

It was after her fifth suicide attempt that Andrea Josephs decided to choose life.

The Australian Army veteran had been battling PTSD, a diagnosis doctors failed to make for 10 years, when a film made by her daughter proved to be a turning point.

It was a tribute video that honoured not only the mother-of-four, but the soldiers, sailors and airmen and women who had put their life on the line for Australia.

The gesture was pivotal for Andrea, who had felt like she lost her identity ever since she was medically discharged from service in 2004.
read more here

Walk to Honor Veteran-Firefighter After PTSD Suicide

Exactly when do these efforts to raise awareness of suicides make them aware of reasons to live instead?

Walk to honour a fellow fireman
Shepparton News Australia
by TAYLAH BURROWS
MARCH 18, 2017

A team of Shepparton firefighters will complete a 20km walk next month to honour a colleague who took his own life.

Just 18 months after finishing a 400km walk to raise awareness for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, Ballarat firefighter Nathan Shanahan committed suicide.

He was as an ex-soldier and a former Mildura firefighter.

Mr Shanahan’s walk from Mildura to Adelaide in April 2015 was also a way for him to tackle his own demons.

However, in December last year he succumbed to his mental health problems.

To honour him, Mr Shanahan’s colleagues in Ballarat and Mildura organised the Walk Off The War Within challenge, a 20km walk to share the burden and walk as one.

About five Shepparton firefighters will take part in the challenge on Saturday, April 22, along with teams from CFA stations and other service groups from across the state.
read more here

Aussie Diggers Deal With PTSD Horsing Around

How horses are helping Aussie diggers deal with post-traumatic stress disorder
Daily Telegraph
EXCLUSIVE, Jordan Baker
The Sunday Telegraph
February 25, 2017

“Even in times of high stress, ­afterwards you can think back and know there is another side, that you don’t always have to be hyper-vigilant or stressed or angry.” Ben Tyne

EVER since he returned from his army tour of Afghanistan, Ben Tyne has lived with the mental torture that is post-traumatic stress disorder. The rage, depression and loneliness are relentless, so any escape is precious.

There are currently limited services to assist servicemen and women who return from service. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

To that end, Mr Tyne spends as much time as he can with horses.

“It’s very honest,” he said. “There is no judgment and no ridicule.”

Equine-assisted therapy is rapidly growing in popularity as a way to calm and treat people with ­addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The theory is that horses are ­socially sophisticated animals, and deeply responsive to emotional cues. In order to successfully interact with the horses, patients must work on regulating their own emotions, and keep their anger in check.
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Australia: Veteran Denied Service Dog Because His Wife Could Do It?

Veterans’ office ‘feudal, chaotic’
The Australian
RORY CALLINAN
February 20, 2017

Minister for Veterans Affairs Dan Tehan. Picture Kym Smith

One veteran was refused a mental health assistance dog because “his wife could do everything a dog could”.

Another was told her post traum­atic stress disorder claim was false because she was pregnant and was suffering from depres­sion related to that instead.

A third had to get his wife to secretl­y record his commander abusing him. The abuse related to his claim over being wrongly investi­gated and disciplined for alleged­ marijuana use in Afghanistan. He was also told he would end up as a “trolley pusher at Coles” if he didn’t follow directives from a Veterans’ Affairs staffer.

These accounts, from veterans’ advocate Rod Thomp­son, are contained in one of more than 500 submissions lodged with an inquiry­ by the Senate standing committee on defence into suicide by veterans and ex-service personnel. They give a devastating insight into the mindset of, and difficulties facing, veterans trying to navigate assistance and compensation claims after they leave the Australian Defence Force.
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Yogi Saved Ryan

‘He hit me to make me drop the knife’: How Ryan’s dog saved his life
News.com Australia
Emma Reynolds
February 14, 2017

AFTER Ryan Geddes served two terms in Afghanistan, he was left with serious post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

The 30-year-old from Newcastle says

his dog Yogi has been his lifeline.

Source:news.com.au

The 30-year-old from Newcastle in NSW found a fly-in-fly-out job, but only lasted a few months, crippled by panic attacks and a phobia of leaving the house.

He says his dog is the reason he’s alive today.

“If I hadn’t met Yogi, I’d be dead by now,” he said. “He hit me once, hard enough to bleed, to get me to let go of a knife. He’s saved my life a few times.”

Ryan met his six-year-old wolfhound cross back in 2010, after his first nine months in Afghanistan, while posted in Brisbane. He returned for five more months in 2013, serving in mobility support on patrol searches for IEDs and weapons.

“When you go to war you see all these horrible things,” he said. “Then your whole idea of humanity is clouded. “It didn’t really hit me until I got out of the army.”
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Dean Yates Battle With PTSD After Reporting on War

The Road to Ward 17: My Battle With PTSD
Reuters
By Dean Yates
Filed Nov. 15, 2016

HOMELAND: In the study at my home in Evandale, Tasmania. In the island’s rainforest, touching the ancient trees and gazing at the misty mountains, I thought I’d found the peace I was looking for. REUTERS/Cameron Richardson

Post-traumatic stress disorder isn’t just for soldiers. After years of covering war and tragedy in the Middle East and Southeast Asia for Reuters, it happened to me.

EVANDALE, Australia – When the psychiatrist diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder at the end of our first session early this March, I finally had to accept I was unwell. The flashbacks, the anxiety, my emotional numbness and poor sleep had long worried my wife, Mary. I had played down the symptoms, denied I had a problem. Five months later I’d be in a psychiatric ward.

I covered some big stories as a Reuters journalist. The Bali nightclub bombings in 2002, the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia’s Aceh province in 2004, three stints in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and then a posting to Baghdad as bureau chief from 2007 to 2008. From 2010 to 2012, based in Singapore, I oversaw coverage of the top stories across Asia each day.

Then, after 20 years working in Asia and the Middle East, it was time to settle down. I moved my family in early 2013 to the Tasmanian village of Evandale, population 1,000, to edit stories for Reuters from home.

Rather than relaxing in Tasmania, the beautiful Australian island where my wife was born, I unravelled.

In a letter that was painful for her to write, Mary, a former journalist, outlined her concerns to the psychiatrist ahead of that first session: “When we came home to Tasmania three years ago it was a real ‘tree change’ for Dean and he spent much more time with the family. Very soon I began to notice changes – a loud-noise sensitivity, a quick temper, irritability, impatience, and an atmosphere of what seemed like misery that sat like a pall over the household,” Mary wrote.
read more here
Linked from PBS

WWII Veteran Lost His Greatest Love Again

WWII Veteran Mourns Death of Girlfriend He Reunited With 70 Years After War
BY TRIBUNE MEDIA WIRE
DECEMBER 16, 2016

Over the last year, each step of the amazing love story between a Virginia Beach veteran, Norwood Thomas, and his girlfriend from World War II, Joyce Durrant, has been chronicled by KTLA sister station WTVR in Richmond.

The latest update is not a happy one, however. Exactly one week ago Friday, Durrant died.

"Joyce was my first great love," Thomas said through tears. "When we reunited, the old feelings rejuvenated. I had a wonderful trip to Australia and was looking forward to another one, but it didn't happen."

Durrant's death comes a little more than a year after Thomas and Durrant reconnected on Skype. According to Durrant's son, she suffered a heart attack in November. Although across the world in Australia, Thomas did whatever he could to make sure he was still by Durrant's side.
read more here

PTSD Police Officers in Australia Betrayed by Bosses

Police officers suffering PTSD slam treatment by employer
New Castle Herald
Lisa Allan
10 Oct 2016

Adam is one of four Hunter Region police officers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who have spoken out about their treatment by the NSW Police Force and insurance agencies.

FOR former Hunter police officer Adam*, it is difficult to pinpoint where his troubles began. It was not a single job, or one bad shift, that pushed him over the edge and into the abyss of post-traumatic stress disorder.

What Adam does recall clearly from his 12 years of service in forensics, general duties and child protection is a lack of meaningful support when it was needed most.

“I was involved in three murders in six months and not one debrief,” he said. “He died straight in front of me, I tried to save him and I couldn’t,” he said. “Two weeks later, I was offered a debrief. All they do is tick the boxes.”

Adam’s illness has cost him. He lost his job and his partner. He left the force in 2013 and has been in and out of hospital as he fights the anger raging in his head. During that time, he has also been fighting another battle, with insurance agencies, in a bid to keep food on the table.

His wife left two years ago and he is raising two children alone on a $1200-a-fortnight workers’ compensation payment.
read more here

Why Is Australia Repeating US Failure of Awareness On PTSD?

Does it feel good to think they are doing good? Sure but it feels really lousy when you understand this stunt achieves nothing. How does raising awareness about the fact troops and veterans have PTSD when they already know they do? If this is about reaching civilians, forget about it because if they have not received the news by now, they never well.  

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was part of the dialog in the 70's yet somehow the stigma was allowed to latch its teeth onto those who survived combat itself but not the residual of it.

Roger Cook: How 22 pushups can help raise awareness of PTSD
Perth Now
ROGER COOK, PerthNow
September 9, 2016 11:08pm

The aim of the movement is to record people doing 22 push ups around the world until a total of 22 million push ups is reached to raise awareness to the suicide epidemic and educate the public on mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The total is currently just under 15 Million.

Wednesday’s commemoration draws public attention to these conflicts and the sacrifice of Australian civil and military lives in a crucial point in our history.
Picture Gary Ramage

WREATHES were laid this week in a new service to recognise Australians lost at war.

The Battle for Australia has been celebrated for the first time in WA to acknowledge the lives of Australians lost in homeland defence during World War II.

In 1942, Labor Prime Minister, John Curtin made a decision that was to be a defining moment in the War and Australia’s history.

Contrary to the long term practice of providing unquestioning military support to our colonial masters in England, John Curtin recalled troops from the European conflicts to reinforce our defences around Australia, which was under threat from advancing Japanese Forces.

This must have taken great courage and leadership and was the pivotal moment in our history when Australia stood for itself and was the crucible for our long and abiding alliance with the US.

What followed was a series of desperate battles in Southern Asia including the famous Kokoda Trail conflict in New Guinea, and the bombings of Darwin, Broome and other towns along the WA coast line. Overall 1200 people lost their lives during these bombings.

Wednesday’s commemoration draws public attention to these conflicts and the sacrifice of Australian civil and military lives in a crucial point in our history.
read more here

Members of our Congress have made speeches over and over again repeating the same worn out words of concern pretending to take action while veterans wait for something to change, something to happen to make them want to live after surviving combat.  More and more charities pop up all over the country claiming the have the ability to raise awareness but all they need is your money. Most have never proven they deserve any of it or the publicity that comes along with raising awareness over something they do not even understand.

We've been arguing with them for years as they repeat a number that has been relatively unchanged for 17 years. With the release of the latest report from the VA, it shows on average 20 veterans a day commit suicide. Look at the chart that came out with the earlier report showing it was 22.

If Australia really wants to make a difference in the lives of their veterans they should try raising awareness on what will actually make a difference in getting veterans to want to live instead of talking about how many they think stopped wanting to live.