PTSD in the ADF needs to be treated as a workplace injury

In a recent radio interview with David Curnow (listen here), he asked what could be done to help those who have served in the military deal with their psychological wounds.

My answer strayed onto the way the system makes it very difficult for those who are struggling to seek help.

The way it works is this:
1. If you report you are having psychological issues to the ADF you are often deemed unfit to deploy
2. If you don't deploy there is no place for you in the army

Now when I first heard about number 2, I couldn't believe it was right. But when I questioned the validity of the statement an army psychologist confirmed it was true.

I still grapple to understand how this can be the case. The ADF is a workplace, no? You acquire an injury (this time it happens to be psychological) at your workplace. Does it not count as a workplace injury?

According to the framework of the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013 (WIRC Act) which aims to help injured workers achieve an early return to work, employers like the ADF should:
– increase the provision of suitable employment to workers who are injured to enable their early return to work
– enhance flexibility in the system and allow for adaptation to the particular needs of disparate work situations
– provide a framework for the effective occupational rehabilitation of injured workers and their early return to work

I just don't see how the ADF is doing this. The headline of a recent article read,
ADF personnel seek PTSD treatment in secrecy to avoid 'career suicide', members say (read here)
It describes how people serving in the ADF are being forced to seek psychological assistance in secret so their careers aren't ruined. How can this do anything but confirm that the system is not working?

Sure, some people will recognise they have a problem and pay to see a therapist in their own time. But others may not. They might be so scared about admitting anything is wrong that they are unwilling to take this kind of action. What happens to them? When they return home to their families, what happens behind those closed doors.

The psychological cost of being deployed on life-threatening military operations is beyond imagining for anyone who except those who have been there. The level of trauma left behind can be so large that it fills, then spills over the top of an individual, splashing onto the family of that person.

If the ADF doesn't do more to help, many people's lives will be broken. Veterans will continue to take their lives. Partners and children will continue to bear the brunt of the system's failure. Something needs to change.