Reason for separation
Figure 4 presents data by reason for separation from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for suicide deaths between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2023 among ex-serving males who have served at least one day since 1 January 1985. The reasons that members separate from the ADF can be categorised into 5 broad groups (see Technical notes for more information):
- voluntary separation
- involuntary medical separation
- involuntary separation: Retention not in service interest. This is a classification which covers a broad range of specific reasons including separation due to a member’s performance, behaviour and suitability, or Defence workforce planning and requirements
- other involuntary separation (for reasons other than medical or Retention not in service interest). These include being physically unfit for service, training failure and disciplinary reasons
- contractual or administrative change.
Due to a change in the way reason for separation was recorded in 2002, analysis is only reported for veterans who separated from 1 January 2003 onwards. These members comprise 45% of all ex-serving members who have served since 1985. The suicide rates over time are presented in 5-year periods because of the lower population size.
Due to the small number of suicide deaths among ex-serving males who separated for contractual or administrative reasons, and ex-serving females by separation reason, suicide rates over time for these groups are not reported.
Figure 4: Rate of suicide for ex-serving males by reason for separation, 2003–2007 to 2019–2023
This figure shows line graphs for the rate of suicide per 100,000 population per year among ex-serving males by reason for separation from the ADF over time by 5-year periods from 2003 to 2007, to 2019 to 2023.
Notes:
- ‘Retention Not in Service Interest’ includes a broad range of specific separation reasons including separation due to a member’s performance, behaviour and suitability, or Defence workforce planning and requirements. See Technical notes for more information.
- Suicide rates are shown in overlapping 5-year periods to increase the suicide count for each data point and improve the reliability of the data.
- Deaths data for the years 2021, 2022, and 2023 contain preliminary data and are subject to change as part of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revisions process. For example, some deaths currently coded as ‘undetermined intent’ could later be determined by a coroner as ‘intentional self-harm’ (or vice-versa).
- Confidence Intervals (CIs) of 95% are used to indicate statistical uncertainty in suicide rates. These should be considered when comparing suicide rates between time points.
- Suicide rates denoted with a '*' should be interpreted with caution as the number of suicides is fewer than 20. These rates are subject to large fluctuations. ‘*’ notation can be viewed when hovering over a data point.
- Comparisons over time should only be made for non-overlapping 5-year periods (for example the 5-year periods 2003–2007 and 2004–2008 should not be compared).
See Data for underlying data (Table D2.7).
Help or support
If you need help or support, please contact:
- Open Arms – Veterans and Families Counselling – Phone: 1800 011 046
- Open Arms Suicide Intervention
- Defence All-hours Support Line (ASL) – Phone: 1800 628 036
- Defence Member and Family Helpline – Phone: 1800 624 608
- Defence Chaplaincy Support
- ADF Mental Health Services
- Lifeline – Phone: 13 11 14
- Suicide Call Back Service – Phone: 1300 659 467
- Beyond Blue Support Service – Phone: 1300 22 4636
For information on support provided by DVA, see: