The Aeternal Group is marking International Day of Action for Women’s Health with the release of findings on women veteran healthcare gathered in an anonymous survey.
The results, which highlight complexity and inadequacy in current options for women veterans in Australia, add an often-overlooked element to this year’s theme of Essential, Not Optional: Strengthening Health Systems to Uphold Health Rights and SRHRJ in Times of Polycrisis.
With women now representing over 20 per cent of the current ADF workforce, the survey results are a precursor of potential healthcare difficulties to come while highlighting the struggles currently experienced by women veterans. However, these issues are frequently left out of the conversation when women’s health is in the limelight.
The survey results, gathered from women who have come from the Army and the Navy, included health services accessed and difficulties experienced, practitioners’ understanding of ADF service impacts on health and how health concerns were addressed when seeking care. Respondents also provided written comments on specific areas of women veteran health they believe need addressing.
The Main Messages
According to Aeternal Group CEO, Kasey Mumford, the messages conveyed in the responses were clear.
“The system is complex and patients and clinicians do not understand it,” Mumford said.
“Additionally, there is a lack of education or training to bridge the gap between the complexity and the end users.”
The responses indicated that some of the health issues experienced by women veterans came from role requirements in the ADF that had not been adjusted for gender.
“Men and women are expected to perform the same tasks and sometimes this will mean that the impact of a role on the health and wellbeing of a service women is greater than on her male counterparts,” Mumford said.
“Physical job requirements, such as manual tasks, physical training, marching with weight, have a greater impact on a woman’s body.
“Women are also often required to contend with environmental conditions that create greater psychological stress than for her male colleagues, such as working in male dominated environments with limited support.”
In Their Own Words
The written responses from the respondents added weight to the need for clearer information on the issues faced by women veterans.
From one respondent on understanding of impacts of service:
“No one believes the lifestyle I had was the same as my male flight coworkers.
“I had to doctor hop once, over six doctors, to receive my diagnosis. No one took me seriously.
From another respondent on the lack of information on healthcare access:
“I had no idea my entitlements until 10 years post discharge and now that I know it is hard to find a doctor that knows how to do the paperwork for your accepted conditions unless they themselves are a veteran.
“Telling a doctor how to do your referral for something like your physio or psychologist never goes down well because they hate being told what to do and they must think of the paperwork as something big and scary when it isn’t.”
Needing Assistance
Provocatus provides support to all veterans through its Veteran Access Scheme, which covers four pillars for support:
- Medications
- Appliances
- Clinical Wellness
- Education
For more information, please get in touch.