Based at the Shepparton RSL, the Goulburn Valley Veterans Support Centre helps veterans living across the Goulburn Valley, many whom are experiencing emotional, mental and physical trauma, to negotiate the bureaucracy of making claims for assistance, and even links them with fitness programs.
Volunteer Paul Blackwell said the claims path could be a difficult one for people to walk, particularly when they were already finding it difficult to cope.
“They don't want to admit how bad things are and some of them are very bad,” he said.
“Both male and female have had some horrific injuries and things happen to them, which people don't want to talk about.”
Mr Blackwell, who is a Vietnam veteran, said the system was complicated by the multiple acts that oversaw it, the time it took claims to be decided and differences in state-based benefits.
“The minister (Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh), a few days ago, he said they (claims) are 300 days behind. I've got claims here that have now been sitting for over two years, which is over 730 days,” he said.
“So I don't know who's feeding the figures. He said there's a 40,000 backlog. It's closer to 100,000.”
Mr Blackwell said the delays added to the stress of veterans, both single and those with families, and left them uncertain about their futures, with some even contemplating suicide.
“It makes it difficult and it's just the state of mind. It plays on your mind and people wonder what's going to happen,” he said.
The GV centre has veterans ranging in age from their 20s to their 90s on its books, as well as families and war widows in a similar age bracket.
It receives strong support from the Shepparton RSL sub-branch, which provides it with office space, equipment and finances to assist veterans in need.
Mr Blackwell said he had made submissions to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide in the hope the system could be improved and the human cost reduced.
“One of my veterans, we think, took his own life not that long ago and he was 42,” Mr Blackwell said.
“So yeah, it's not good. When we get veterans coming in here, one thing I will say, and we have younger and older veterans, ‘If you want to talk, give us a ring. Come and see us.’”
Mr Blackwell said the centre would use the money to help with the daily running of the office.
For more information, contact the Goulburn Valley Veterans Support Centre on (03) 5831 7220 or at info@gvveterans.com.au
