This background paper was prepared by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and has been published by the Royal Commission for the purpose of informing the public.

The Department of Defence and the Australian Defence Force, collectively known as Defence, have prepared this document as an introductory briefing paper to the Royal Commissioners. The paper provides background into the employment arrangements for the Australian Defence Force (ADF), including the composition of the ADF and the unique nature of military service.

The objective of the audit was to examine the effectiveness of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs' (DVA's) planning and management of the Veteran Centric Reform (VCR) program.

The information in this report is based on fact of death information from the National Death Index (NDI), cause of death information from the National Mortality Database (NMD) and Defence Suicide Database (DSD), as well as information on personnel in the three ADF service status groups from Department of Defence personnel systems. The report outlines...

While mental health services have been evolving, veterans have also been changing. The duration and nature of recent and current military conflicts has materially changed the mental health profile of modern veterans. Veterans, current serving members, service providers and ex-service organisation (ESOs) all collaborated on the design of this strategy document.