10 Reasons why Defence can’t do Transition on its own

It is unreasonable to expect Defence to effectively transition serving veterans back into the civilian community without coordinated support on the civilian side of the "Transition Bridge". Here are the top 10.

1. Expectations of the length of service are generally overestimated.?Many servicewomen and men believe they signed up to serve their country for a lifetime of service or at least with no consideration for their next job. The reality is that most will serve less than seven years. The transition occurs most often sooner than expected.
2. Too many serving veterans give little thought to transition until they are compelled to leave due to medical or other reasons or complete the form formally announcing their intention to transition. There is often an epiphany moment that brings potential transition into focus. By then, it is typically too late as the serving ADF member has already convinced themselves, their family and their friends that it is necessary and will happen. The time to prepare has gone, and it is now essentially a checklist process to separate.
3. ADF Culture is different from life outside the ADF. Civilian life is relatively complex compared to the structure and order of life while serving in the ADF. An individual’s ability to navigate the many services that might help them to transition and settle into life after transition is particularly challenging. It's even worse if leaving with a mental health condition.
4. Maintaining ADF identity and adapting that identity to the new reality post-transition can be very challenging.?An individual’s identity as a member of the ADF is strong. Most veterans have made life-long friends even only after the rigours of recruit training. Connection with mates, peers and others with a shared life experience in the ADF is essential but can be difficult to maintain after transition. Connections to the local civilian community are also necessary. Both provide an inoculation against isolation, loneliness, anxiety, and depression. Many veterans need support to adapt their ADF identity to accommodate their new civilian and workplace community to thrive.
5. The ADF is busy preparing to defend the nation and its people.?Support for transition from an individual’s unit is less supportive than those separating expect (confirmed by exit surveys of transitioning veterans), which is at least partially understandable given the operations and training focus of units and commanders. Life in the unit goes on at pace while individuals complete the transition checklist.
6. An individual's immediate chain of command generally lacks experience and knowledge regarding transition.?Members of an individual’s unit chain of command commonly feel justifiably unqualified to offer advice on life after transition, especially as most had their last taste of civilian life when they left their parents’ homes and joined the ADF as teenagers.
7. Transition services offered to serving veterans on a ‘needs-basis’ alienate those who perceive they send the wrong signals to colleagues and supervisors if they engage these services.?Some secrecy before completing the AC853 is often considered necessary to avoid consternation and ribbing from colleagues for what may only be an attempt to be better prepared for the inevitable transition. The first challenge is convincing those who have joined the ADF to prepare early in their career.
8. Most veterans consider DVA and the ESO community their principal sources of support. In doing so, they often need help accessing services available to the whole community. Examples are Medicare, Centrelink, Workforce Australia, NDIS, and My Aged Care.
9. Most organisations in the ESO Community (especially the smaller ones, which are the most prolific) deal with a specific demographic, have limited functions, and are generally staffed only by volunteers.?It is not easy for transitioning veterans, who are often entitled to belong to several ESOs, to find and be supported by an ESO that can help with specific needs.
10. There is no single coordinating authority to support ADF Transition Centres on the civilian side of the "Transition Bridge". No organisation has the responsibility or authority to collaborate with other government agencies and programs, ESOs and supporting organisations, in the interests of the veteran community, in the areas where veterans live and work, to partner with Defence’s 16 ADF Transition Centres.