Suicide remains the leading cause of death for ex-service personnel, at a rate far higher than that for other Australian males aged under 30.
According to the latest report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, while the numbers have been declining since the mid-2010s, it’s still too early to say whether this is a conclusive trend.
Suicide accounts for 42 percent of deaths of men under 30 who have been members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), while for the same civilian population, it is 30 percent.
The disparity amongst women is even more pronounced, with suicide accounting for 44 percent of deaths among female ex-service personnel under 30 versus 22 percent among the general population.
Between 1997 and 2023, 1,840 serving and ex-serving ADF members died by suicide (1,532 ex-serving and 308 permanent/reserve). Of these deaths, preliminary data suggests 73 occurred in 2023, the most recent year of reporting.
The figures suggest that soldiers, sailors, and airmen are at greater risk once they leave the service, but that women cope better with this than men.
Between 2021 and 2023, the suicide rate per 100,000 was 26.4 per year for ex-service males, 16.0 for males with permanent roles, 15.2 for men in the reserves, and 10.0 for ex-serving females.
The Institute also looked at health service use in the year before death among ex-service people who died by suicide and after intentional self-harm, each reflecting different time periods.
It examined who accessed a range of health services between July 2010 and June 2020, including the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS), Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) MBS-equivalent services, hospital admissions, emergency department presentations, and prescription medicines supplied through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) or Repatriation PBS.
Most—86 percent—of ex-service personnel who died by suicide had used health services in the year before their death, and one-third (33 percent) of those who accessed services had a mental health service as the last type of care used.
“Suicide has a profound and lasting impact, deeply affecting families and loved ones and sending ripple effects throughout Australia’s defence and veteran community,” said AIHW spokesperson Paul Pham.
“This ongoing body of work aims to inform improvements in suicide awareness and prevention for ADF personnel and their families [and] helps us better understand and identify patterns, risk factors, and where intervention opportunities may lie.”
