HYPERVIGILANCE is key to programming new recruits into the Australian Defence Force (ADF), but it is reversing this mindset once discharged that presents the greatest challenge to veterans and their families.

Hamilton RSL president and ex-Navy veteran, Danny Bland, and his wife who is also ex-Navy and the branch’s secretary, Belinda Lane, are committed to running the local precinct as a warm and welcoming safe space for veterans.

In that space, they are equally committed to raising awareness about the perils of transitioning and readjusting to ‘normal’ life outside of the ADF.

Last Monday, they welcomed Defence and Veterans Legal Service lawyer, Steven Baras-Miller, who is employed under the auspices of Victorian Legal Aid, to the Hamilton branch to assist veterans to make submissions to the current Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

Although not a veteran himself, Mr Baras-Miller personally holds the ADF dear to his heart as his father was a Vietnam veteran, his grandfather, local Hamilton man, the late Les Booker, was a World War II veteran, and his great grandfather fought in the Boer War.

His visit to western Victoria included a stop at the Warrnambool RSL for a presentation and screening of a movie called “Living” starring Bill Nighy.

Mr Baras-Miller said the relevance of screening the film was that the story line was allegorical to defence personnel and the mental health problems they faced after leaving the military.

‘Living’ is about a public servant who was forced to retire early from his prominent career upon learning he had a terminal illness and in doing so had to relearn his purpose and identity in life outside of his work.

Mr Baras-Miller said a lot of veterans told him they were drawn to joining the ADF because they felt they had a ‘calling’.

“A lot of my clients had a strong moral call into the defence forces,” he said.

“They really wanted to do a community service and they join the military - but then when they leave the services, they lose that sense of purpose - who they are in the world.”

Mr Baras-Miller’s visit to Hamilton was part of a tour of the entire state to the regions including Mildura, Bairnsdale, Ballarat and Bendigo.

He said through Melbourne Legacy, the Victorian Veterans Family Service was funded to support veterans and families around the Royal Commission, but it doesn’t include legal support.

“That’s where we come in,” he said.

“We assist with information, legal advice and help with writing submissions to the Royal Commission.

“It’s not means tested either - we will talk to anybody.

“We have an initial conversation which lasts a couple of hours either face to face or over the phone.

“Because of my family background I feel comfortable with talking with them ... a lot of my work is with families of veterans and children of veterans.”

Mr Baras-Miller said he was one of three lawyers who do the outreach legal service for Defence and Veterans Legal Service, along with two part-time lawyers including one female lawyer who is important for offering female representation to female veterans.

Mental health issues and suicide rates in ADF servicemen and women are shocking and absolutely more concentrated than in the general population.

Figures from a 2022 report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed ex-serving males were 27 per cent more likely to die by suicide than Australian males.

Men who leave the ADF for involuntary medical reasons are three times as likely to die by suicide than those who leave voluntarily.

Ex-serving females are 107 per cent more likely to die by suicide than females in the general population.

“What I see in a lot of people who are highly trained to be hypervigilant - a lot of them develop issues around PTSD in which that hypervigilance is locked into them,” he said.

“That’s the purpose of the training - and they can’t escape it.”

Mr Baras-Miller gave an example of a veteran he had spoken with and who gave permission to talk about his experience.

“I’ve got one client with classic PTSD - who saw a stick on the ground and then thought no, it’s a snake, then no, it’s a stick, it’s a snake,” he said.

“He couldn’t escape that, and he was locked into that for days on end.

“It’s a combination of the training and the service - the constant high alert.

“Some have been in Afghanistan where obviously there is trauma.

“Some of them have been submariners where you’re in a constant state of alert because you can’t even drop a spanner.

“If you drop a spanner, it sets off an echo throughout the ocean and gives away your position then you’ve done the whole ship in - you’re constantly on edge.”

“You’ve got people trained to be hypervigilant for years - and in the past I had clients say when they left (the ADF) that all they got was a one-day seminar and a pamphlet.

“The issue is how do you detrain people and help them - how do you stop them being hypervigilant.

“That’s not something ordinary people have to deal with.

“(Civilians) aren’t trained to be hypervigilant.”

Mr Baras-Miller said the Royal Commission was about finding a way for the military to return people to civilian life.

“It really needs to be about mental health and dealing with those transition periods and how personnel are trained and then untrained,” he said.

“Where they don’t have to be on edge - where they can feel safe and secure.

“I’m not saying anything critical of the military or the department - these are things they are saying themselves.

“These are the challenges they have and how do we undo these challenges for people.”

He said the reason he was spending a lot of time in the regions and going to towns like Hamilton, was a lot of veterans gravitated to quieter country areas and towns to self-isolate and escape the crowds and busy areas.

“The ones with mental health issues - they try to cut themselves off from society,” Mr Baras-Miller said.

“Speaking to the media is a way to reach them, which is why I’ve really focussed on regional areas with outreach.”

He said although it was a major part of the Royal Commission, it wasn’t all about suicide.

“It’s about a lot of things - it’s a lot about looking at the massive backlogs of claims in the defence,” Mr Baras-Miller said.

“While veterans are waiting for their claims to be processed, either PTSD or injury claims - in that interim period, a lot of them fall into the cracks.

“They depend on legacy and RSL to live and rely on charity a lot of the time - that’s been a big part of the problem and the Royal Commission is looking at that.

“The interim report recommended the department should hire an additional 500 staff and get rid of that backlog - so far, they’ve got an extra 300.

“They hope to get through the backlog before the start of next year before the final report is handed down in 2024.

“My sense of identity was wrapped up in being a sailor.”

Mr Bland concurred with what Mr Baras-Miller said about joining the ADF as being a ‘calling’.

“Steve’s 100 per cent right with that - my sense of identity was wrapped up in being a sailor,” he said.

“That’s probably why I volunteered to be president here.

“When I was medically discharged, that sense of identity was removed - especially because it was not my choice.

“One of the things I had to learn was … I went through a mourning process - you have to mourn the job you were in and mourn your own personal identity.”

Mr Bland served for 22 years and reached the rank of Petty Office Boson before being medically charged.

“We (did) all upper deck fittings and seamanship, doing lines, replenishments and sea, towings, breakdowns, run small boats - all that kind of labouring stuff,” he said.

He served in East Timor under now retired, General Sir Peter John Cosgrove, AK, CVO, MC on Operation Relex, the name given to the ADF border protection operations in Australia’s north, including people smuggling and illegal fishing.

His service also included Operation Resolute and coups in Fiji and the Solomon Islands.

Mr Bland was open about his own struggle with his mental health, with anxiety and depression during and after serving in the Navy and is passionate about helping veterans come forward to get the help they may need.

He choked up when repeating something a Warrant Officer of the Navy had said to him shortly before he was discharged.

“One of the last duties I had whilst I was in the Navy … I did a fair bit of public speaking all my Navy life and out (of the Navy), and I was acting as an MC for a funeral for a friend of mine who had taken his own life while he was in uniform,” he said.

“We had a meeting on the day of the funeral.

“Just before we went to that funeral the Warrant Officer - he said something that smacked me in the face - he said, ‘I go to every Navy service funeral - no matter what - I go to a funeral because it’s a car accident or cancer - and I can tell you why they’re in the box - but when they take their own lives - I cannot tell you why they’re in the box’.”

Mr Bland said it was the aftermath and the ripple effect of a veteran suicide that was so difficult to rationalise.

“He was someone I served with - I knew him and his wife well, but I cannot tell you why he was in the box,” he said.

“The amount of fallout for every suicide is huge.”

Mr Bland and Ms Lane met aboard the HMAS Success and married while serving in the Navy.

“Or the ‘Love Boat’ as it was nicknamed,” Ms Lane said.

Joining the Navy was a lifelong dream for Ms Lane and after two previous careers including working in aged care, and as a qualified butcher, she was accepted on her first attempt to join, at the age of 24.

She attained the rank of Able Seaman communications sailor and served for 12 years before also being medically discharged.

She used the analogy of joining a religious cult to describe the experience of being recruited into the ADF.

She asked what you would call it when you tell someone you’ve joined an organisation where you go away on a retreat, have your head shaved, go to bed when you’re told, get up when you’re told, eat what everybody else’s eating and get punished if you don’t?

“A cult,” she said.

“The only difference is instead of having a bible in your hand - in the military it is replaced with a gun.

“You can’t take a kid off the street, give him a rifle, put him on a battlefield and expect him to survive.

“You have to break them down from their civilian life and teach them the way they look at the world as a civilian will get them killed.

“You need to train them to run towards the bullets - not away.”

“Then you build them back up - (and tell them) now that you are military, you are special - the cream of the crop - you are above civilians - you are separate from that world because you wear the uniform - you are better.

“I don’t mean that in an arrogant narcissistic way but when everything falls apart, they (civilians) look to you for leadership.

“But like when someone is rescued from a cult - (military personnel) need to be deprogrammed.

“You are now no longer worthy of that level of self-assuredness.”

Ms Lane was serving on the HMAS Toowoomba when they had two suicides in the space of six months on board.

She attributes her own struggle with mental health including a bipolar II diagnosis to a culmination of things including the pressure of work in the Navy.

“It was very much - if you wanted to have a career in the Navy - it had to come first,” she said.

“But there was very much a feeling that if you were an ‘AB’ (Able Seaman) for a long period of time and not advancing in your career, that was a sign that perhaps you were not competent.

“I do believe there was pressure to advance in my career - and I definitely felt I needed to get on with my career.”

She also suffered personal tragedies along the way including the loss of her second child - a son.

“He was stillborn - we lost him at 38 weeks,” she said.

Ms Lane said sleep deprivation also played a role in poorer mental health from being onboard HMAS Success and then being a new mum to daughter, Grace.

“You were trained to be awake for long periods of time,” she said.

“When you’re away at sea and you’re in the red zone, you can’t say, ‘hey I need to have a sleep now’.”

She said the ADF was big on looking after the mental health of personnel but said when she was diagnosed with bipolar, she lost her job, her career, and her identity.

“If you’re not deployable - you’re not employable,” Ms Lane said.

“The most ridiculous thing was once I was medicated, I was a way better sailor because my mental health was better.”

Ms Lane appears to have landed on her feet volunteering at the Hamilton RSL and with her husband is determined to improve the building and make it even more welcoming for veterans.

“My job here is to support the older veterans that are still around and their families,” she said.

“For the younger veterans with what precious time they have in their lives now, is to value add to the time they can give (the RSL).

“If we are going to ask them to be a part of this, we have to add value to their lives - we need to be a support - we don’t want to be one more drain.”

The Royal Commission is receiving submissions until October 13.

On April 28, the Royal Commission is availing the opportunity for ex-veterans or family members to apply for a private session to make a submission face to face, directly with a commissioner.

When Mr Bland was asked what he would say to someone who was contemplating joining the ADF - “absolutely do it”.

“That’s because of the importance of it for the strategic value for Australia - it is worth it - we give so everybody else can have,” he said.