Time since separation
Figure 6 presents data by time since separation from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for suicide deaths between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2023 among ex-serving males who have served at least one day since 1 January 1985. For ex-serving members who died by any cause during the monitoring period, time since separation is the time between full separation from the ADF and date of death. For veterans who were alive at the end of the monitoring period, time since separation is the time between their separation from the ADF and 31 December 2023. Due to the small number of suicide deaths among ex-serving females, suicide rates by time since separation over time are not reported.
Figure 6: Rate of suicide for ex-serving males by time since separation, 1997–1999 to 2021–2023
This figure shows line graphs for the rate of suicide per 100,000 population per year among ex-serving males by time since separation from the ADF over time by 3-year periods from 1997 to 1999, to 2021 to 2023.
Notes:
- For ex-serving members with a time since separation of 20 years or more, 3-year monitoring periods start from 2005-2007 as this is the earliest time in the monitoring period that an individual can have separated from the ADF since 1985 and have been separated for 20 years or more.
- Suicide rates are shown in overlapping 3-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 3-year periods (for example the 3-year periods 2002–2004 and 2003–2005 should not be compared).
See Data for underlying data (Table D2.9).
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: