VMHPAA Calls for Swift, Collective Action in Addressing Defence and Veteran Suicide
- Shane Warren
- Sep 3
- 2 min read
AWARENESS STATEMENT
For Immediate Release
3 September 2025
VMHPAA acknowledges the crisis and speaks to spotlight a deeply concerning reality: the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide delivered a thorough final report in September 2024 with 122 recommendations, yet only nine have been fully implemented to date.
Understanding the Stakes
This high-risk crisis is more than statistics it represents lives disrupted, families shattered, and a community feeling abandoned.
The Commission’s comprehensive investigation revealed systemic failures across defence and veterans’ services, including breakdowns in culture, leadership, justice, mental healthcare access, and data systems.
Only in recent months has progress begun: the Commonwealth has formed an Implementation Taskforce to guide meaningful rollout, established a new Defence and Veterans Services Commission, and commenced co-design processes with veteran communities.
Yet, the slow pace of implementation is putting lives, and trust, in jeopardy.
What VMHPAA Stands For...
At VMHPAA, we stand staunchly with veterans and families living through this painful reality. We honour their strength and stories.
We emphatically call upon Commonwealth and State governments to expedite the remaining 113 recommendations of the Royal Commission, not just in policy, but in practice.
Real Solutions Demand a “Broad Church” of Care
We assert that sustainable, effective mental health reform must include all practitioners, not just clinicians.
Vocationally trained mental health professionals - counsellors, peer mentors, community health workers - often live within the same towns, neighbourhoods, and networks as the people they serve. Their unique blend of professional governance, lived experience, and cultural context makes them ideal connectors in moments of crisis:
“Sometimes what people need most is someone to be present, just to listen, to hold space, to walk through the pain with them,” says Shane Warren, Chair of VMHPAA. “That is care.”
We believe that veterans should never be left to navigate trauma alone or through faceless systems.
VMHPAA’s Call-to-Action
Accelerate Implementation: All levels of government must commit to fast-tracking remaining recommendations, with clear timelines and transparency.
Integrate Vocational Practitioners: Recognise vocationally trained mental health professionals as eligible providers in veteran and Defence support systems, especially in triage and psychosocial care.
Ensure Cultural Responsiveness: Veterans come from diverse cultural and regional backgrounds, care must be tailored accordingly.
Support Real Connection: Policies must allow for meaningful presence, not just prescriptions, because healing often begins with being heard.
VMHPAA Stands With the Veteran Community
As we approach key parliamentary work and Budget planning, VMHPAA urges all stakeholders to treat this as a national imperative, not just a policy checkbox but a moral call to action.
Let us build a system where no Veteran or serving member is left silent. Let us build a system that cares.
Media Contact:
Shane Warren, Chair
Susan Sandy, Secretary
Philip Armstrong, CEO
VMHPAA
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