Anzac Day: Paper for Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide reveals regularity of suicide calls

A veteran calls emergency services every 16 hours in Queensland with suicidal thoughts, prompting calls for more funding for a purpose-built support facility in Brisbane.

A Legacy event at Brisbane’s Cenotaph on Tuesday. Picture: Richard Walker

A veteran calls emergency services every 16 hours in Queensland with suicidal thoughts, prompting calls for more funding for a purpose-built support facility in Brisbane.

The report by the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research released this month as part of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide showed 1625 Queensland veterans had contact with police or paramedics over three years and had 24 per cent higher odds of having suicide related contact with emergency services compared to civilians.

The findings were from health data compiled between 2014-17, with Legacy Brisbane chief executive officer Brendan Cox saying more needed to be done to understand why this was still happening.

“A paper just released last week identified that one in every four hours (nationwide) a veteran was calling emergency services seeking support for suicide thoughts,” Mr Cox said.

“This is an issue that we need to be grappling to understand to work collaboratively with clinical and non-clinical solutions.”

Legacy Brisbane's CEO Brendan Cox is calling for funding for a support facility for veterans. Picture: Richard Walker

A veteran himself of 26 years in the infantry, Mr Cox stressed that there is an impact on mental health after being exposed to war zones.

“There is a natural consequence to be exposed to conflict, there is a mental impact upon that and we are encouraging veterans and all families to seek the support they need,” he said.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of, it’s part of our mental health.”

Mr Cox mentioned the staggering fact as he called for funding to build Legacy House, which will provide support and services for the families of veterans, at a site at the Greenslopes Private Hospital.

“Legacy is now actually moving its head office to Greenslopes Private Hospital, the reason we are doing that is to support those veterans going through the hospital and we will be there to meet their families, we will be their to help their families social support and any support mechanisms they need,” he said.

“It is about giving them a voice with what is happening in their living room, saying come on home into our home, come on home and seek the services you desperately need that we are desperately willing to provide.” The facility is a $9m project, with $8.3m raised for the initiative so far, as Legacy Brisbane hopes to raise the remaining amount by Anzac Day through the Bring it Home campaign.

“We are so close and the community can help us bring it home by supporting us,” he said.

New Legacy Brisbane president Annabel McGuire, the wife of a Queensland war veteran, knows all too well what it is like for defence families who need support.

Legacy Brisbane president Dr Annabel McGuire. Picture: Richard Walker

“When my husband came home from Iraq where he was in a situation where he was regularly receiving rocket fire, we live on a creek line and there was fireworks, so he was home 10 days and he started to shake,” Dr McGuire said.

“He got really anxious and he was like ‘this is so wrong, I’m in Australia, I shouldn’t feel like this’.

“We need avenues where people can reach out and go, is this normal?, when should I worry?, what type of help should I get?

“It is providing care at those points that is really important.”

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