Royal Commission into Defence & Veteran Suicide
As a national organisation, BUA is commited to turning the following Royal Commission recommendations into action:
Recommendation 5: Support all serving members to decompress, rest and reintegrate, especially after high-risk experiences
BUA provides hundreds of evidence-based decompression events across Australia every year. These include yoga sessions, breath-work training, hot-cold exposure and physical endurance activities in nature such as hiking. BUA is safe space where defence members are welcomed be themselves.
Recommendation 8: Maximise workforce retention by addressing factors that contribute to voluntary separation
BUA is committed to serving current Defence people by promoting and educating our Thrive principles. Proactively addressing the underlying factors of burnout, fatigue and psychosocial stress mean our members build greater resilience to the impacts of service life. Great retention is a bi-product of happy, healthy staff who are well-valued and accountable for high performance.
Recommendation 62: Establish a research translation centre for defence and veteran health care
BUA is committed to understanding ‘what works’ to promote optimal health and wellbeing for Australia’s current Defence members and Veterans. By building a stronger knowledge of our Defence members’ service journey, BUA can proactively instil protective factors. We are always open to collaborate with external organisations for the betterment of our veterans.
Recommendation 63: Reduce stigma and remove structural and cultural barriers to help seeking
BUA works to promote a culture where seeking help early is seen as a strength, not a weakness. As an organisation with an endless number of trusted partners, BUA is well placed to professionally refer individuals to experts in their field. We reject the ‘broken veteran’ narrative as this only works to stigmatise and prevents people from reaching out.
Recommendation 66: Where possible, support injured members to be rehabilitated at work, within their home unit
BUA recognises that people may turn up to events in different stages of their journey, both physically and mentally. We cater for this by offering scaled options. The majority of our Event Leaders have direct lived experience in service life - they understand the challenges. BUA can be used more effectively as part of the rehabilitation and socialisation process.
Recommendation 81: The Department of Veterans’ Affairs to fund a program to support members’ wellbeing during transition to civilian life
BUA provides quality social connection for those moving from service to civilian life. Easing the transition process by connecting new veterans to those with lived experience, provides context and reasurance . As a national organisation, the challenges of interstate migration can easily be overcome. BUA also offers social engagement with first responders and family members to broaden their network beyond the military world.
Recommendation 82: Establish a consistent, locally responsive policy on ex-serving members’ access to bases
While respecting the requirements of operational security, BUA is well-placed to scale its impact by engaging directly with the ADF rather than serving individual veterans alone. By building and maintaining local relationships, ADF bases around the country can benefit from the amazing events that BUA already delivers to thousands of veterans.