Abstract
Objective: To provide an overview of the development of mental health services for veterans and currently serving military personnel in Australia, with reference to the role of the Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health (ACPMH).
Conclusions: Recent years have seen significant changes in attitudes to the mental health sequelae of military service. The ACPMH, working in collaboration with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) and the Australian Defence Force (ADF), as well as with clinicians, researchers, and consumers around Australia, acts as a focus for an integrated approach to veteran and military mental health. The active involvement of both the ADF and DVA in the challenge of mental health provides new opportunities to address psychiatric morbidity at every stage, from recruitment, through deployments and discharge, to veteran status. The ACPMH is in a unique position to facilitate an integrated approach to prevention, intervention, policy development, training, research, and evaluation in order to ensure that Australia remains at the forefront of world's best practice in veteran and military psychiatry. The Centre is also uniquely placed to offer those same services in the field of traumatic stress to the broader community.