Dear Friends

There’s to be another Royal Commission. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister announced the establishment of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. It will be led by former NSW Deputy Police Commissioner, Nick Kaldas. He will be assisted by former Queensland Supreme Court Justice, James Douglas QC, and psychiatrist, Dr Peggy Brown.

Their task will be to conduct a "systemic analysis" of the risk factors inside military life that contribute to the high number of service men and women taking their own lives. This will include exploring the possible contribution of pre-service and service training, deployment, transition, separation and post service issues. It will be comprehensive.

In recent years, there have been consistent calls for such a Royal Commission. While the PM initially resisted, he conceded the issue and last year appointed a standing National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention. In April this year, he finally agreed to a Royal Commission.

Since the Howard Government committed Australian troops to Afghanistan in 2001 (our longest war), 41 Australians have died as a result of injuries sustained in the conflict. Over the same period, more than ten times that number have died by suicide; 500 is the latest count. The numbers could be higher. Given suicide can take many forms, it’s possible that some vehicle ‘accident’ deaths were also suicides.

Suicide is a tragedy. Forty years ago it was virtually unmentionable. People wouldn’t admit that their loved ones died by their own hands. It was often a painful secret that families held onto in dark places. The Church had a very strong stance on suicide – it was a grave sin, and those who committed suicide couldn’t be buried in consecrated ground. It was only in the 1980’s that the Church lifted it’s prohibition on funerals for suicide victims.

One of the strengths of our current, open age is that there is nothing much that can’t be spoken about. The veil over suicide has been lifted. There is awareness about the mental illnesses that lead to suicide; conversations about depression are encouraged; medical intervention has improved. We now have the capacity to talk about mental health and suicide in a way we didn’t until recently. It’s no longer the taboo it was. However, despite this significant change in climate and culture the rates of suicide continue unabated*.

The causes of suicide are personal and complex, with many factors contributing to increased risk. Mental illness (particularly depression) is the most important risk factor for suicide. When alcohol or drug misuse co-exists with mental illness, there is a greatly increased risk. Historical, cultural and physiological factors also increase vulnerability; some of these include: childhood abuse, family violence, homelessness, social isolation, addictions, experience of, or anniversaries of separation or loss (of loved one, job, money, status). All of these experiences can lead to a sense of hopelessness.

The Royal Commission has a huge task ahead. There are no simple answers to the who and the why of suicide, and certainly no simple remedies.

The fact that we, as a society today, are better at talking about mental health and suicide is one of the reasons the plight of service men and women is known. However, it seems obvious that people in combat zones or in open armed conflict are living under intense pressure and experiencing painful events on a daily basis. We can’t underestimate the damage that is inflicted if this is sustained over time. Is it possible that this is no different to what previous generations of service men and women experienced? Shell shock was the term used to describe the impact on World War I veterans. Today we would name it post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). What about those who returned from World War II and disappeared into a haze of alcohol for some years; maybe, or maybe not, to emerge. And I’m confident we know, or know of, Vietnam Veterans who returned changed men, and not for the better.

Could it be that whenever we take young people, train them for conflict, send them to foreign lands where others are intent on killing them and where there is constant danger, anxiety and often scenes of brutality and suffering, that there will always be psychological damage to some of them? Is the brutalisation that needs to be part of these environments not bound to have a detrimental impact on some?

Over the last 130 years, Australia has been involved in a range of different wars and conflicts, for a variety of reasons, but only once because we were directly threatened. Our most recent involvements have been most unfortunate. The War against Iraq was supposedly because it held “weapons of mass destruction”; this was later proved false. The war led to a destabilisation of the Middle East which continues today, resulting in enormous deaths and displacement. The War in Afghanistan was to eliminate El Qaeda; however, Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan and the violence in Afghanistan continued for 20 years. Now, the western troops are gone and the situation for the citizens of that poor country is dire. It’s a tragic historical reality that some wars need to be waged – World War II is the best example. However, it seems most don’t.

For as long as politicians choose warfare as a foreign policy strategy, then there will be unjust wars; there will be civilian casualties; there will be deaths of soldiers and there will be men and women who carry the scars of war for their entire lives – and some of these will, in all likelihood, suicide.

I hope and pray that the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide is successful in giving the families of those who’ve died the opportunity to tell their stories and offer their suggestions, and equally successful in delivering recommendations that might prevent future suicides. However, I suspect that until our Leaders renounce war, and are permitted to engage in it only as a last resort, then the suicides will continue.

“Blessed are the Peacemakers – for they will be the children of God”.

Br Peter Carroll FMS

President, Catholic Religious Australia

*Lifeline statistics on Suicide in Australia

Nine Australians die every day by suicide. That’s more than double the road toll.
75% of those who take their own life are male.
Over 65,000 Australians make a suicide attempt each year.
In 2019, 3,318 Australians took their own life.
Suicide is the leading cause of death for Australians between the ages of 15 and 44.
The suicide rate in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is twice that of their non-Indigenous counterparts.
People in rural populations are 2 times more likely to die by suicide.
LGBTI+ community members experience significantly higher rates of suicide than the rest of the population.
For each life lost to suicide, the impacts are felt by up to 135 people, including family members, work colleagues, friends, first responders at the time of death.
Males aged 85 and older experience the highest age-specific rate of suicide.
Same-gender attracted Australians are estimated to experience up to 14 times higher rates of attempted suicide than their heterosexual peers.
If this raises issues for you, please seek assistance. The following services can help:
Lifeline Australia - 13 11 14 - Crisis Support and Suicide Prevention
Beyondblue - 1300 22 4636 - Support for anxiety, depression and suicide prevention
Suicide Call Back Service - 1300 659 467
In an emergency call triple zero (000)