Dio Wang (WA, Palmer United Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) a newly formed Western Australian initiative 'Alongside' is responding to the urgent educational, counselling and coping skill needs of families (partners and children), of first responders and Australian Defence Force (ADF) current and past service members all suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – these families of our protective service members implicitly sacrifice some quality of life knowing the daily risks faced by their family members,

(ii) that an ABC 720 Perth interview with the organisation leader in February 2015 introduced the PTSD factors impacting Western Australia's police families, resulting in a flood of enquiries from the broader group covered by this motion, including over 20 000 tweets, more than 100 direct enquiries, and over 800 individuals who connected via Facebook, from across Australia,

(iii) the National Coronial Information System (NCIS) Intentional Self Harm fact sheet shows that, between 2000 and 2012, one member of our emergency service personnel committed suicide every 6 weeks, a figure which the NCIS acknowledges largely underrepresents the scale of the problem, and that true data is only inferred by the tip of this iceberg – official reports of fatalities which include 62 police officers, 22 firefighters and 26 ambulance officers,

(iv) the 2010 ADF Mental Health Prevalence and Wellbeing Study reported that approximately 22 per cent (11 000) of the ADF population experienced a mental disorder in 2009 10, and around 7 per cent had co-morbid health diagnoses, with PTSD the most common, and

(v) that children of a parent with PTSD are significantly more likely to have a mental health diagnosis due to intergenerational transmission of trauma, but accurate data on the broader impact of PTSD is elusive, with a distinct paucity of credible research on the effect from, implications of, and early to longer term care options for, the families of PTSD first line sufferers – effectively these are people who are invisible to most of us, who are motivated to help the PTSD sufferer, and who endure a host of risks and threats to their wellbeing, without sufficient recognition or qualified support; and

(b) calls on the Government and this Parliament:

(i) to invest in a more focused yet holistic examination of the societal impact and consequences of our failure to adequately address the circumstances surrounding PTSD fallout as described in this motion, and

(ii) to seriously and urgently consider how Australia's intellectual and physical resources can best be employed to bring about both a greater public awareness and sense of responsibility for protecting those who protect us, while investing in accredited remedial help in support of these families.

Question agreed to.