As part of the Government response to the Senate Committee Report, ‘The Constant Battle: Suicide by Veterans’, DVA commissioned Monash University to undertake an independent study of the mental health impacts of compensation claim assessment processes on veterans engaging with DVA and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC).

This project studies the risk factors for osteoarthritis in the lower limb in the ADF community through the analysis of current and historical ADF training courses, and relevant claims data.

The Australian Gulf War Veterans’ Follow Up Health Study 2015 (Follow Up Study) is a follow up to the original Australian Gulf War Veterans’ Health Study 2003 (the 2003 study), also commissioned by DVA, to assess Gulf War veterans’ health and wellbeing 20 years after deployment. The Follow Up Study is a longitudinal cohort study conducted from 2010 to 2015. It compares the physical, psychological and social health and military related exposures of Australian Defence Force veterans of the First Gulf War against a military comparison group and the 2003 study. A mortality and cancer study component of the Follow Up Study involved the entire Gulf War and military comparison groups, comprising a total of 4,793 people At follow up Gulf War veterans were found to be resilient. They were likely to have accessed disability and health services, which may suggest that the Gulf War cohort is seeking help when they need it. At follow up there was a reduction in smoking, with one half of those who reported being a smoker in the 2003 study no longer smoking. The Follow Up Study found Gulf War veteran participants were more likely than the military comparison group to suffer from a number of conditions, including posttraumatic stress disorder, alcohol disorder, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic multisymptom illness. There were no statistically significant differences in cancer and mortality rates between Gulf War veterans and the military comparison group.

The Australian Gulf War Veterans’ Health Study was the first comprehensive health study of a group of Australian War veterans involved in a single theatre of war. It was conducted by a collaborative medical research team from the Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine at Monash University, Health Services Australia Ltd, the University of Western Australia, and The Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health at the University of Melbourne.

Flinders University Study: The report matches DVA administrative data with community data from the Student Outcomes Survey (SOS) and the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, to better understand potential workforce outcomes for DVA clients.

The key findings of the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO) Census and Prospective Health Studies were launched by the Chief of the Defence Force on 8 August 2013. 

This report overviews and contextualises the Mental Health and Wellbeing Transition Study methodology, describes the study populations and presents the key findings from the first two technical reports of the Study, Mental Health Prevalence and Pathways to Care. 

This project was funded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to investigate the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dementia in veterans. 

The reports were produced by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs with the assistance of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.  

The Department of Defence, with the support of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Council, commissioned Monash University to undertake a statistical study into the health of current and former Australian Defence Force firefighters who served from 1980 to 2013.