Australian Veterans are being called on to help develop mental health and wellbeing services for current and former Australian Defence Force (ADF) members and their families.
Launching a feedback survey, the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) said it was developing a future model of mental health and wellbeing service delivery to guide how it provided support to veterans and their families.
The Department said the model would include Open Arms – Veterans and Families Counselling (Open Arms) services; DVA Coordinated Client Support Case Coordination; DVA On-base Advisory services; DVA Community Support Advisor services; and DVA funded mental health and wellbeing support programs.
“To ensure Australian veterans and families have a voice in the development of the future model, we are conducting a survey, individual interviews, and co-design activities,” DVA said.
“The survey focusses specifically on the experiences of veterans and families who have used any of the services identified above,” it said.
“We would also like to hear your ideas about improving DVA’s future mental health and wellbeing support services and service delivery.”
The DVA said information provided via the survey would help it to better understand people’s service experiences to date, as well as how the Department could meet the future support needs of Australian veterans and families.
“We are also working closely with the DVA team planning to develop a new Defence and Veteran Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy,” it said.
“Input from the survey will be shared with the team to inform the development of the Strategy in due course.”
The Department said survey respondents would not be required to provide their name or any specific information that identified them.
“We have tried to make the questions as general as possible to protect your privacy.”
The DVA’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Support Service Experience Survey will receive contributions until 28 February and can be accessed at this PS News link.
