DVA commissioned La Trobe University to investigate literature on best practice in in-home domestic assistance programs in order to provide a contemporary evidence base to inform any future policy and program development aimed at improving DVA domestic assistance service offerings to veterans and families.

The Defence and Veteran Family Wellbeing Strategy 2025-2030 has been developed to recognise the pivotal role families play in supporting current and former serving Australian Defence Force members. 

The Department of Defence and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs worked closely together to develop the Strategy and First Action Plan. This coordinated approach ensures that the impacts of service and related life events on families are managed, both during and after service, with appropriate fit-for-purpose policies, programs and support – now and in the future.

Over the next 5 years, this Strategy will guide how the Department of Defence (Defence) and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) provide targeted support to Defence and veteran families. 

The Strategy outlines how families will be supported, reaffirms a commitment to understanding their needs, and prioritises stronger engagement and ongoing support to enhance their wellbeing.

The First Action Plan outlines the actions that Defence and DVA will initially take to achieve the Strategy’s objectives. Defence and DVA will update the Action Plan as actions progress, with the most current version available here.

The focus of this review is the comparison of veteran rehabilitation offerings of the Five Eyes countries to understand where Australia's offerings sit in terms of focus, scope of services and eligibility in relation to comparable schemes.

The Tasmanian Feasibility Study, commissioned by the Commonwealth and Tasmanian Governments, engaged with stakeholders, including veterans and their families, Ex-service Organisations and service providers to collect data on the current service delivery environment in Tasmania.

The study shows support for more accessible localised services for veterans and their families in Tasmania. 

This Rapid Evidence Assessment investigates the research literature analysing the risk factors for ex-serving personnel entering corrective services systems in Australia and/or other relevant jurisdictions. The report examines and synthesises recent research evidence regarding risk factors for entry into corrective services systems by ex-serving personnel across the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

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. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Transition Study is one of three studies that comprise the Transition and Wellbeing Research Programme.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) commissioned Dr Samantha Crompvoets to lead a study in 2009 into the health and wellbeing of female Vietnam and contemporary veterans. The study was completed in 2012. The report’s findings were based on in-depth interviews with 60 female veterans and 30 workers in the female veteran health and wellbeing field, as well as reviews of previous research.

The ADF Service Women Steering Committee report and joint Defence/DVA response 

The Departments of Veterans’ Affairs and Defence jointly established the ADF Service Women Steering Committee (the Committee) to provide recommendations for improving Defence and DVA services for current and former ADF members. The Committee’s membership included current and former soldiers, sailors and air women (regular/permanent and reserve).

The Committee considered Dr Crompvoets’ report and discussed practical ways to improve current and former ADF service women’s access to services.

The Committee concluded that there are no major gaps evident in Defence or DVA services for current and former ADF service women, but identified that there was a lack of awareness by women of available support and services.

The Committee also found that significant changes have occurred with the services provided by Defence and DVA during and since Dr Crompvoets’ study that have enhanced care and support for contemporary veterans, including female veterans, and their families.

The Committee made 24 recommendations. DVA and Defence have accepted the majority of the Committee’s recommendations and will continue to work together to improve responsiveness to the needs of women who serve or have served our nation.

The ADF Service Women Steering Committee

With approximately 14 per cent of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) being female, female veterans are making up an increasing proportion of DVA clients. In 2012, an average of 345 females served on overseas operations at any given time, with their roles including logistics, health, communications, transport, signals, engineering and intelligence. The start of 2013 saw the ADF open all employment categories to servicewomen and a new Army recruitment campaign to increase the number of women serving over the next 12 months.

More than 11 000 veterans with one or more accepted conditions under any Act administered by DVA are female. In the last few years the Department has significantly improved services for contemporary veterans, including female veterans. DVA and Defence have also recognised that female veterans have unique requirements and so have established an ADF Service Women Steering Committee to inform both departments of the specific needs of women.

The committee is co-chaired by Gayle Anderson, Assistant Secretary Service Development and Defence Relations Branch (DVA) and MAJGEN Gerard Fogarty AO, Head of People Capability, Defence. Membership includes female current and former serving members (both regular and reserve) who have deployed on operations to Somalia, Timor Leste, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The committee is considering a broad range of information, including research by Dr Samantha Crompvoets of the Australian National University which was funded through DVA’s Applied Research Program. The study, completed in 2012, was commissioned to look at the needs of the growing number of female veterans. The report from this study into the health and wellbeing of female Vietnam and contemporary veterans is available on the DVA website.

The ADF Service Women Steering Committee has met three times between May 2013 and 30 June 2013 and will continue to meet regularly until August 2013, after which the Committee will report to the Repatriation and Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commissions with recommendations to further guide service design.

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 report provides a predictive analysis of the impact that health conditions, medical discharge status, and service type, have on a veteran’s ability to look for and participate in work assuming community trends apply to veteran groups. The findings are not based on actual veteran employment outcomes. Nevertheless, the study is informative of potential outcomes. DVA’s rehabilitation program is aligned with the study findings.

It is important to note that the findings should be read in context of the report and as they are general in nature, they should not be considered applicable at an individual level. A one page overview of the study is also attached.

Further information:

• Quick Facts Sheet (PDF 125 KB)
• Quick Facts Sheet (DOCX 255 KB)

The Transition and Wellbeing Research Programme Key Findings is the final of eight reports and two papers comprising the Transition and Wellbeing Research Programme. It summarises and consolidates the overall key findings from each of the three interrelated studies that make up the Programme: the Mental Health and Wellbeing Transition Study, the Impact of Combat Study and the Family Wellbeing Study.

This Programme constitutes a unique and valuable source of information about those who have recently transitioned from Regular ADF service (between 2010 and 2014), those who were still serving in the Regular (full-time) ADF in 2015, and those who have served on contemporary operations.

A further unique component of this Programme is its examination of the mental and physical health of ADF Reservists, in particular Abinitio Reservists who have never served in the Regular ADF.

It is also the first Australian study to specifically examine the impact of military service (not operation specific) and transition on ADF family members (partners, parents and children), whereby data were collected on both the serving member and their nominated family members contemporaneously.

The key findings presented in this report represent an overall summary of the Programme findings and should be considered in the context of prior Australian and international reports on mental health and wellbeing in both military and veteran populations.

The 'Veterans’ Advocacy and Support Services Scoping Study' led by Mr Robert Cornall AO was released in December 2018. The aim of this study was to recommend the most suitable advocacy model for Australian veterans and families. You can learn more about this in the Terms of Reference.

Read more about reviews and reports on the veteran advocacy system.