Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Veterans Affairs. Minister, as you know, Ryan is home to many service men and women. What is the government doing to support ADF members and help veterans and their families cope with the impacts of PTSD, and, more specifically, will you advise the House what is being done to support the medical professionals who are treating those suffering from PTSD?

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for her question and for her calls for concern for our fighting men and women. The member for Ryan, of course, represents some 6,000 service men and women at Gallipoli Barracks, home of 7th Brigade, and there are some 2,900 veterans in her electorate. Importantly, and for the information of the House, the member for Ryan is also the mother of a veteran. In fact, the last time I caught up with her son I was with the member for Lingiari and we were in the Middle East together. I am led to believe that in four weeks her son will deploy again to the Middle East, so if I can take the liberty, Prime Minister, on behalf of the House we wish him well. We thank him for his service and we thank the member for Ryan for being the mum of a veteran. It can be a hard road.

The member for Ryan asks an important question on PTSD. There has always been a bipartisan view on this in the House and it is something that respective veterans ministers have worked together on in the past. I thank the member for Lingiari for his work and service during this and the previous government. The government is pretty proud of what we do, especially in non-liability care. A veteran or a serving soldier, sailor, air man or woman who is struggling with issues of mental health can go and seek care and support regardless of causality. The government spends something like $180 million a year on that. The Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service has a superb electronic interface and provides over 80,000 counselling services to veterans, serving men and women and their families each year. You can also google the At Ease portal on the DVA website—just google 'At Ease'—and up will come a range of online resources. There are four key apps for handheld devices, for both Android and Apple, notably PTSD Coach, High Res, The Right Mix and Operation Life.

You will also find there are a range of resources for doctors. We have just released a range of resources called the PTSD Psychological Interventions Program, which is an online training program that medical professionals can use and take to give them greater information about PTSD and the military experience. The department has developed this in consultation with Flinders University to ensure it is a great learning resource.

Likewise, on Mental Health Day last October we also released the 2015-16 Mental and Social Health Action Plan, which guides our measures for the end of the financial year, and of course the 2015 social health action plan which goes through the strategy for the next five years. But there is more research to be done. We have also funded the health and wellness study as we continue to look into the effects of PTSD and mental health, on not just our serving men and women but also their families. I encourage all members to appraise themselves of the resources available online so if questions are asked at their offices they know where they can push some of our fighting men and women and the veterans to look.