We have recently submitted feedback on the Defence and Veteran Family Wellbeing Strategy 2025-2030. You can read our submission here.
Overview of our response
In summary, our response to the strategy highlights the importance of supporting and empowering the families of veterans to achieve a stronger, more sustainable, and resilient defence and veteran community. Our response advocates for improvements in multiple areas. While we welcome the existence of a strategy, it needs to be bolder and more practical in supporting families.
Key areas for improvement
Outdated Model of Care: We highlight that the current model of care is outdated and does not adequately support families. We challenge the core assumptions this strategy is built on.
Recommended actions
We urge the Government to take substantive and practical steps to support families, ensuring they are not invisible for another five years. We emphasise the need for immediate action to support families and highlight the critical role of family support in recruitment, retention, and overall defence capability. Specifically, we encourage the following actions:
- Lifetime mental health treatment for children of deceased veterans
- Extending mental health treatment to partners, parents, and children of veterans
- Providing in-home care support for families with young children
- Removing dependency-based language from policies
Call to action
Want to support our calls for action for defence and veteran families? Let us know by emailing ceo@fov.org.au or write to us with your experiences and what you would like to see or what you expect the support for defence and veteran families to look like in Australia. Let’s build that future together.
