NIGHTMARE ON THE HOME FRONT AS ARMY ‘DISCARDS’ OUR DAMAGED VETERANS

AN army veteran with 20 years’ service and multiple deployments says she was “tossed away” following a medical downgrade due to her mental health. Former warrant officer Kylie James (pictured), the director of Veterans Retreat, told the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide that she left the Australian Defence Force without her bosses even thanking her for her service.

Transition after medical discharge is a key focus of the commissioners as statistics show a pattern of higher rates of suicide among the group.

Medical discharges account for about 18 per cent of people leaving the ADF but the rate is higher in Townsville where 27 per cent of discharges are medical.

Ms James said she felt isolated and alone when she discharged in 2019 after a medical downgrade due to her mental health as she returned from deployment in the Middle East.

The deployment to the region was the highlight of her career but she struggled to leave her two young children at home.

“I went from flying very high in the military … to being on the discharge process and realising I was quite replaceable,” she said. “I used to work in logistics and I said to my bosses, it was easier to replace me than to replace the torn tent that does not work.”

She channelled her energy into Veterans Retreat, which hosts annual wellness retreats and provides housing to homeless veterans. Through the retreat, she identified two main mental health risk factors: the treatment of members when they leave and the first five years after leaving the service. She said Defence needed to better prepare troops for life after discharge and said as an organisation it needed to connect and check in with those who left service life and all the support it offered behind.

“Once you are on the medical discharge route you are very quickly discarded by the organisation. It is very much a ‘see you later, you are a problem, you are an administrative burden’,” she said,

“There is no ‘thank you for your service’, it is just, ‘see you later’.

“I really struggle to comprehend what it is like for those young Diggers that don’t really have rank (and) didn’t really spend much time. If that is how they are sending me off … how are they sending off the younger people.”

She said a single statement from commanding officers and leaders when people left service would have a massive impact.

“I think that it is just going to change so many lives just by a single statement,” she said.

“By going ‘hey, I care and yeah, you really did put your life on the line for the ADF and we thank you for that’.”

In contrast to previous evidence from high-ranking Defence personnel, Ms James said seeking mental health support while serving was a “career killer”.

“Unfortunately you are more treated like a problem child than someone that has got a problem,” she said.

“The moment you ask for help, don’t expect a deployment.

“And your career is certainly going to come to a grinding halt or you are going to find yourself subject to differentiated treatment within your unit.”