Thomas Bailey | Growing veteran community blindsided by funding cuts

The data found more than half a million Australians (581,139) have served, or are currently serving, in the ADF.

Each of these veterans are able to access varying support through the Department of Veteran Affairs dependent on their eligibility for an orange, white or gold card.

From the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide to the latest federal budget, veteran support in Australia (or lack thereof) has been a constant conversation over the last 12 months.

The consensus is that the veteran community is among the "winners" of the latest federal budget. Yet the department has instigated a change that has left a percentage of the veteran community feeling blindsided.

Sadly, the department has decided to cease or limit funding for non-liability healthcare for white card holders - despite there being a greater amount of white card holders (164,240) than gold card (108,240).

Vital exercise physiology services are part of the non-liability healthcare that has now been limited with white card holder veterans relying on these sessions as treatment for varying mental health conditions.

Funding was ceased at the end of 2022 and veterans who depended on the service weren't notified or given any notice this would be happening. The Department of Veteran Affairs claims it is reassessing the criteria for the treatment of non-liability healthcare for white card holders and have put a hold on providing the service until they have an answer.

Veterans, specifically male, report a greater rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared with the general community.

In conjunction with PTSD, other mental health conditions may develop, including depression and anxiety.

Decades' worth of research has proven there is a clear connection between movement and mental health, the majority (89 per cent) of all published peer-reviewed research between 1990 and 2022 found a positive, statistically significant relationship between exercise and mental health.

Through working closely with professionals and hearing personal anecdotes from veterans in the community, I've seen first-hand how good nutrition and regular exercise provides an important foundation for improving both physical and mental health.

I know all too well how not managing your mental health can have catastrophic effects on an individual and inevitably those around them.

After the heartbreaking loss of my best friend to suicide about eight years ago, I became passionate about supporting initiatives to help other people impacted by mental health conditions.

My journey started by directing my focus on a demographic that I felt was overlooked.

Through research and speaking with various community groups, I found a massive cohort of veterans were struggling with similar issues as my friend such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

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These events all led to creating Veteran Benefits Australia (VBA) in 2017, an information hub designed to connect veterans to services that will improve their health and wellbeing, help to educate them on the services available to them and advocate for new and existing services for Australian veterans.

So far it has connected over 10,000 veterans to exercise services nationally, and our mission is to be able to continue helping Australian veterans with exercise prescriptions to treat mental health and fill the gap left by the government.

Veteran Benefits Australia is advocating for people whose white card applications have been rejected, leaving them unable to access life-changing exercise programs.

We're working with the department to ensure they recognise the importance of covering exercise for the treatment of mental health so that our country's veterans are not left stranded and can live a bright future after service.