DR. ROB WALTERS: Defence Force members suffer the same mental health problems
as the general public.
We can have other conditions
that are probably more prevalent however in Defence Force.
DR. LIAM CONNOR: The members are exposed
to very significant environments
that are highly stressful on their biological system
and their psychological system as well.
DR. STEPHANIE HODSON: There are real challenges
when you send people who've come from such an easier culture
into places of extreme poverty or where there's been conflict.
DR. LIAM CONNOR: When they come back from that experience,
quite often their biological system is in haywire,
they have difficulty sleeping, they have troubles eating,
they might feel quite irritable, they might have angry outbursts
and not quite be sure what's going on.
DR. STEPHANIE HODSON: You come home to a family that sees you as a hero,
you don't want to change the view of everyone around you
by talking about your insecurities and fears,
and that then can come out as a whole range of symptoms.
The most common mental health problems in veterans
tend to be focused on either depression
with an underlying anger and sense of frustration
with some of the things that they've seen in the world.
Alternatively what you'd see is more classic post-traumatic stress
where people have been exposed to an event
that they can't get out of their head,
they're having the re-experiencing of the event.
It's important that the practitioner,
especially when they have someone first come for a new conflict,
that they do a little bit of homework, that they look on the internet.
The ADF has a summary of every operation we've ever done.
You just look up ADF operations
and they'll tell you a little bit about the theatre
and what the person actually maybe went through.
DR. LIAM CONNOR: I think what's important with working in this area
is also to have a knowledge, or as much knowledge as possible,
about the military and the impact of training,
and the impact of these deployments,
these unique deployments, can have on members.
DR. STEPHANIE HODSON: We know that there are in fact three key areas
that clinicians need to be aware of
across all these different types of deployments
that can actually cause problems for individuals.
Where you are faced with a situation
that is actually very uncontrollable and dangerous,
a situation where you see human misery on a large scale
or a situation where the individual
has had to deal with human remains,
and it becomes particularly problematic
if you have to deal with your mate.
Practitioners need to be very careful that, when they first see a client,
the client will be wanting to look to see
whether or not the practitioner is there
to help them or to just hear their story.
So, many of these clients will have been asked the question, you know,
'Did you kill anyone, what did you see, did you see dead bodies?'
The clients I've had experience with
actually get really frustrated if you go too quickly to their story.
DR. LIAM CONNOR: I think that's probably one of the most important things
that people can do when working with these members,
is to provide a space where they feel contained, where it's predictable,
and also where they give a sense of giving them time
to be able just to say whatever comes to mind.
DR. STEPHANIE HODSON: They may have seen events
that they were not able to act on,
seen women treated in ways
that we would never treat women here in Australia,
and many veterans I work with find that very difficult,
and the fact that they couldn't intervene means that they would...
..they come home with a level of guilt.
DR. ROBERT WALTERS: There is a huge range
of initiatives now available for you
to access on behalf of your patient
to get them help.
DR. STEPHANIE HODSON: The time to go and do
long literature searches on the internet
or pull in journal articles can sometimes be just not practical.
What the Department is providing is resources through its At Ease portal.
It firstly provides information importantly on military culture
that allows you to understand the context
in which the veteran will actually present with problems.
DR. LIAM CONNOR: To work with someone
and to just be there when the penny drops
or when that cog clicks and they make sense of something
that they've been wrestling with for so long,
that is just such a moving experience.