Characteristics of serving and ex-serving ADF members who have not yet or not recently interacted with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs

AIHW has analysed the health status of non-DVA clients and DVA client types by considering information on the prevalence of chronic conditions and deaths by suicide.

Chronic conditions

AIHW released research in September 2025 on the chronic conditions of ex-serving members (see Chronic conditions among ex-serving ADF members). The research used medication prescription information and diagnosis in hospitals to identify chronic conditions.

Based on health service usage, both male and female ex-serving ADF members who were non-DVA clients had lower prevalence of chronic conditions than DVA clients in 2019–20 when compared using age-standardised rates. The most common chronic condition that ex-serving members who were non-DVA clients were living with was cardiovascular disease, followed by mental health conditions and select musculoskeletal conditions.

Almost one in five ex-serving member non-DVA clients were living with cardiovascular disease (18.4%) and one in seven were living with mental health conditions (14.2%), below the age-standardised rates for DVA clients (24.9% and 27.6% respectively).

The next most common chronic condition for ex-serving members who were non-DVA clients was select musculoskeletal conditions, with 6.5% living with the condition in 2019–20. However, this was below the rate of 13.1% for ex-serving members who were DVA clients.

Both male and female ex-serving members who were earlier DVA clients had lower prevalence of chronic conditions than recent DVA clients in 2019–20 when compared using age-standardised rates. Similar to non-DVA clients, the most common conditions among earlier DVA clients were cardiovascular disease, followed by mental health conditions and select musculoskeletal conditions. The proportion of earlier DVA clients living with cardiovascular disease was 18.2% (compared with 29.2% of recent DVA clients) and the proportion living with mental health conditions was 11.8% (compared with 41.5% of recent DVA clients).

Deaths by suicide

The ADF annual suicide monitoring report released in 2023 reported that from 2002 to 2021 there were 1,371 deaths by suicide of current and ex-serving ADF members (see Serving and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members who have served since 1985: suicide monitoring 1997 to 2021). Of these, most suicides (1,154) were ex-serving members. Among ex-serving members who died by suicide, 1,053 were male and 101 were female. Of these:

• 747 were male non-DVA clients (71%) and 76 were female non-DVA clients (75%)
• 109 were male earlier DVA clients (10%) and 9 were female earlier DVA clients (9%)
• 197 were male recent DVA clients (19%) and 16 were female recent DVA clients (16%).

In comparison, there were 306 male DVA clients and 25 female DVA clients who died by suicide.

The suicide rate for ex-serving members who were non-DVA clients was 28.9 per 100,000 population per year for males and 14.2 for females for 2002 to 2021 (male and female DVA clients were 32.4 and 19.9 per 100,000 respectively). The rate for ex-serving members who were earlier DVA clients was 27.7 per 100,000 population per year for males and 12.5 for females (male and female recent DVA clients were 35.7 and 29.8 per 100,000 population per year respectively).

Due to the small population of female ex-serving member deaths by suicide the rest of this section will only discuss ex-serving males who died by suicide.

The highest suicide rate for non-DVA clients was for ex-serving males who separated for involuntary medical reasons (90.2 per 100,000 population per year). This rate was higher than that of DVA clients who separated for involuntary medical reasons (63.3 per 100,000 per year), but this difference was not statistically significant.

The highest suicide rate for earlier DVA clients was for ex-serving males who had served less than one year (51.0 per 100,000 population per year). While this rate was higher than that of non-DVA clients (46.0 per 100,000 population per year) and lower than that of DVA clients (58.6 per 100,000 population per year) and recent DVA clients (105.1 per 100,000 population per year), these differences were not statistically significant.

Figure 6 shows the proportions of ex-serving males who died by suicide by non-DVA client and DVA client type.

The age distribution of ex-serving male non-DVA clients who died by suicide was slightly younger than DVA clients who died by suicide. For example, the proportion of ex-serving male non-DVA clients who died by suicide aged under 40 years was 44% compared with 35% for DVA clients. A similar pattern was observed for earlier DVA clients.

Ex-serving males who were non-DVA clients and died by suicide had shorter lengths of service than ex-serving male DVA clients who died by suicide. Among ex-serving males who died by suicide with less than 1 year length of service, 91% were non-DVA clients. Among those who died by suicide with at least 1 but less than five years of service, the proportion of non-DVA clients was 86%. In comparison, among ex-serving males who died by suicide with 20 or more years of service, 28% were non-DVA clients.

Three quarters (75%) of ex-serving male non-DVA clients who died by suicide had died 10 or more years after separation. This compared with around half (52%) of DVA clients who died 10 or more years after separation.

Reasons for separation for ex-serving male non-DVA clients who died by suicide were different to male DVA clients. Among ex-serving males who died by suicide, non-DVA clients compared with DVA clients were:

• more likely to have separated voluntarily (37% for non-DVA clients compared with 19% for DVA clients), broadly similar to the pattern among the population of ex-serving members who were alive (54% compared with 35%, respectively)
• less likely to have separated involuntarily for medical reasons (10% of non-DVA clients compared with 50% for DVA clients), broadly similar to the pattern among the population of ex-serving members who were alive (2% compared with 28%, respectively)
• more likely to have separated involuntarily for non-medical reasons (50% for non-DVA clients compared with 24% for DVA clients), similar to the pattern among the population of ex-serving members who were alive (35% compared with 24%, respectively).

It is important to note that ADF members who access services funded by DVA may be more likely to have physical and mental health needs that would have led them to DVA.