Premium Content One former or currently serving ADF personnel dies by suicide every two and half weeks. The AIHW is the closest any government or support agency has come to identifying the known number of veteran suicides - 419 from 2001 to 2017. The overwhelming majority of them were men.
Hub for our Heroes is asking the community to get behind the two projects dedicated to helping our service men and women, as well as our first responders. Suicide was the leading cause of death for active and ex-service men aged 16-49 and more than one in five men and women who recently transitioned to civilian life were reported to be suicidal.
Premium Content
Subscriber only Leslie Palmer needs medication to sleep, haunted by the seconds 51 years ago that killed eight of his mates and left him with lifelong physical and mental injuries. The Vietnam War veteran and president of Mackay Veterans Group suffers a severed nerve and post-traumatic stress disorder but he counts himself lucky after the incident on February 28, 1970. Mr Palmer said he and his 8th Royal Australian Regiment battalion comrades had been chasing the enemy through Vietnam s Long Dien mountains. We knew we were in a minefield, Mr Palmer said. We did the prodding of the bayonets into the ground to make sure there were no mines in front of us.
Premium Content
Frontline responders are more than twice as likely to be suicidal than other adults.
Their exposure to traumatic and graphic scenes in their roles as paramedics, police officers, firefighters, electrical workers, doctors, nurses and more can be debilitating.
A BeyondBlue survey of more than 21,000 first responders found more than one in four experienced probable post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition impacting their lives and that of their families.
Plans that would make Mackay a revolutionary health and wellness hub for veterans and first responders to treat post-traumatic stress are progressing through a partnership with PTSD Frontline and ReNew Mackay, a locally-led private consortium.
Leonard Lister says modern soldiers face mental battles far worse than he and his comrades who fought in World War II. The 97-year-old Sarina resident was 19 when he left Australia to serve in New Guinea where he was seriously injured during a mountain patrol for Japanese soldiers. Mr Lister fell 10m causing his foot to partially detach from his leg, only the muscle and skin holding the two pieces together. He was medically discharged but despite what he endured, Mr Lister said today s fellas copped it worse. Our war was a straight-out war, Mr Lister said. You didn t have to wonder.