Producing an overarching strategic direction
for PTSD and Mental Trauma
The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre
About
One powerful day of arriving
at positive solutions
This was first written way back in early 2019 and nothing has really changed to alter the format of this Forum.
Many of the people who feature in this document have campaigned tirelessly for the changes we wish to emanate from these two days.
The Royal Commission shows that the authorities are listening and this forum can play a large part in the final outcomes. Previous conferences for PTSD and Mental Trauma have not really generated the positive outcomes that are required to increase the success rates of treatment.
An increase in success rates should then impact on a reduction in the suicide rates in the ranks of our Military, our Veteran Community and our First Responder Services.
This is obviously not happening at present. PTS22 has been designed to create positive outcomes.
Every person that will assemble in this room either live or remotely will have unquestionable experience or knowledge of the subject matter on the agenda. They will all be perfectly qualified to arrive at the series of recommendations that we wish to present to the relevant authorities.
The subject matters for the Forum have been arrived at in consultation with various Ex Service Organisations, Researchers and Clinicians. These are the people who work at the coalface. These are the people who know what is needed to improve the overall treatment. PTS21 as a collective will present a detailed, qualified report to those who will need to act on it. As a country we have to be so much better at this.
For the first time ever true collaboration will take place for the improvement in the treatment of PTSD and Mental Trauma.
The international collection of panellists has been finalised. They will present their collective experiences on each subject to an invited audience and then after a brief discussion, every person in the room will give four or five recommendations for the authorities to act upon. These will then be collated into a final report by an experienced group. In the lead-up to the Forum every person in the room will be fully briefed on the subject matters and the sorts of outcomes we would like to see. They will all have their own preconceived ideas and we would hope that the group discussions can firm those up. All of their recommendations will be made independently.
We will also have a truly, well briefed moderator who will head off any red herrings that may be introduced. Time will be tight and all participants will need to be focussed on the three main subjects of TRANSITION, SUICIDE and MODELS OF CARE. Every person in the room will be asked to provide a brief CV which will be published in the report to give the authorities irrefutable evidence of the authenticity of the recommendations. It is our intention to publicise that this forum will be live streamed globally.
BASIC STATISTICS
• 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.
• Only 28% of philanthropists donate to Mental Health.
• For every one dollar donated for mental health five dollars is given for cancer.
• The Productivity Commission announced in November last year that mental health and suicide costs Australia about $220 billion per annum.
• 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.
• Up to 45% or 11.2 million Australians will experience mental illness in their lifetime.
• Every six weeks an emergency service worker dies by suicide.
• Female veterans are twice as likely to die by suicide than civilian females.
• From 2001 to 2016 56 ADF members were killed in action compared with 373 by suicide.