After three years of investigations, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide has delivered its final report with 122 recommendations. The commission has carried much hope for veterans and their families – now we wait to see action.
The veteran sector, including families, had lobbied for this inquiry for over a decade. For a long time, the call fell on deaf ears. The Ex Service Organisation Round Table even rejected the idea, saying veteran suicide was roughly the same as the national average.
The royal commission has addressed this question of poor data. Over the course of the inquiry, the certified numbers of people who died by suicide rose from around 300 to around 1,700. This was because a forensic focus was applied to the statistics.
