Anzac Day commemorations at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park. (2018)
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The Otago University study published in
Health and History analysed welfare claims from Dunedin s Returned Services Association for Second World War veterans suffering from war neurosis and how they were supported in terms of mental health care when returning from war.
Angela Wanhalla, who was a lead author of the study alongside Tiffany Jenks, said until now very little was known about the mental health support given to soldiers on their return home. We know about the physical disabilities but there is a lot of silence around the kinds of trauma that was attached to war service and how families actually ended up being the core support for many of these men who sometimes struggled to articulate what was wrong.