Matt Keogh claims cultural change and cutting-edge treatments will help Aussie veterans to sustain wellbeing

Cultural change, cutting-edge treatments and being able to avoid injury in the first place should be the new reality for people leaving the Australian Defence Force. That’s the commitment, as Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh pursues ways to make their transition easier. By this time next year, the Minister wants someone leaving service to have quick and easy access to the benefits they are owed under a single regime, underpinned by a new wellbeing agency and working within a broader ecosystem of support. A key new focus for the Department of Veterans Affairs is working with the Department of Defence to better manage injured veterans’ transition to civilian life, and help others avoid being injured in the first place. Mr Keogh is also continuing to work through the Defence and Veterans’ Suicide Royal Commission’s 122 recommendations. He expects that a quarter of these recommendations will be dealt with by the end of the year. The new focus is tied up in the response to the Royal Commission recommendations. “The pervasive catch cry across the veteran community that DVA operated on the basis of ‘delay, deny, die’… is a phrase that I would like to consign to the dustbin of history, in terms of what people’s experiences of dealing with DVA now and moving forward,” Mr Keogh told The West Australian, ahead of his first address to the National Press Club on Tuesday. So far, the department has cleared an inherited backlog of 42,000 benefits claims. New claims are now being looked at within 14 days and processed in an average 110 days for the most common claim types. DVA, Defence and Comcare, which manages workers’ compensation claims and gets injured staff back to work, are together taking a holistic look at ADF’s workplace health and safety, and cultural change. Their work aims to ensure injured staff can seek treatment and rehab without worrying about being “shoved out” of the ADF. “We need to make sure that we’re talking from a space of ‘this is how you get fit and well’, not just for now and being deployable, but also long-term,” Mr Keogh said of the preventative approach. “If you don’t injure people, you’re not a DVA problem, but more importantly, your wellbeing and your prospects are much better. “And from the DVA end, (it’s about) making sure we are really leaning forward on making sure that people get access to good treatments or rehabilitation.” While DVA has always been in the health space — it used to run repatriation hospitals for veterans and their families — Mr Keogh said the difference now was a greater willingness to lean into less traditional or more cuttingg-edge approaches to providing those supports. Because it’s working with a smaller cohort than the general population, DVA can harness emerging treatments, particularly for veterans with more complex issues. The department has backed trials and therapies using MDMA for treatment-resistant PTSD, the naturally-occurring psychedelic psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, and medicinal marijuana for pain, along with emerging treatments for tinnitus. It is also running region-specific programs, such as peer-led mental health support in Tasmania, which means veterans don’t have to travel to the mainland to receive help. Mr Keogh will use his Press Club speech to outline what has happened in the year since the government responded to the royal commission report, and the policy pieces that will fall into place next year. An independent commission to track progress was set up in September — which the Minister said was “important as a marker to the veteran community that we’re serious about getting this stuff done” — and interviews are now in progress to find a permanent commission head. Mr Keogh will also announce the next steps to set up an inquiry into sexual misconduct in Defence next year.