DETERMINED T O CHANGE LIVES
VETERAN Michael Lyddiard has faced more adversity in life than most other Australian soldiers, but he wants to use his experience of trauma to help save the lives of others.
He is one of the youngest members on the Operation Compass advisory team. The group had its third meeting last night before reporting to the steering committee of the pilot suicide prevention trial tomorrow.
“In May 1995, I signed a dotted line and that was to preserve and protect Australia’s interests and just because I was medically discharged doesn’t mean that I don’t still do that for my fellow brothers and sisters at arms or veterans,” he said.
“I’m here to keep a holistic view and make sure this project is delivered and is efficient.”
Three- star general, retired, Lieutenant General John Caligari said the trial would work from the Black Dog Institute framework to turn their nine strategies into “eight compass point directions”.
“A lot of our community is concerned that they’ve seen all this happen before, and we’ve done too many things and they’ve just not worked and haven’t gone anywhere so why would you bother joining up to something if it’s just going to fall over again,” he said. “So this trial is the brain trusts of people who have had lived experiences … and we are about getting this right.”