DVA wellbeing project expanded to serving members

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Longitudinal Wellbeing Project is being expanded to include current serving ADF members, who are DVA clients, as a step in building wellbeing awareness across the full military lifecycle.

Established in partnership with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the project combines DVA data with ABS data so that researchers can examine long-term wellbeing outcomes.

Until now, the project has focused on veterans and their families.

Including current serving members, who are DVA clients, will provide a more comprehensive view on wellbeing outcomes to inform improvements to policies, programs and services.

The project will include a range of DVA administrative information such as de-identified DVA data to determine representation in veteran groups, such as participation in specific DVA programs or services. As well as data on service usage, such as veteran card type and the number of DVA services accessed.

While clinical records are not shared, aggregate claims and injury information, such as the number of claims lodged and summarised injury details will also be included.

To protect members’ privacy, all data such as names and addresses are de-identified before it is provided for research. Researchers only access data within secure ABS environments.

All published findings are aggregated and undergo confidentiality checks prior to release.

Participation in the project has no impact on an individual’s service, career, claims, compensation, entitlements or access to services. The data is used solely for research and policy development purposes, and is not used to inform decisions about individual members.

Members who are DVA clients have the option to opt out of having their information included in the project. To do so, contact DVA directly via privacy.enquiries@dva.gov.au by July 31.

Requests received after this date will be managed in line with annual data updates. On August 1, data will be transferred and de-identified, and cannot be removed.

Defence encourages members to seek out information and informed conversations about the project.