Additional suicide analyses
Australian Defence Force suicide deaths in the period 1 January 1985 to 31 December 1996
This publication reports 1,763 confirmed suicide deaths that occurred between 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2022 among Australian Defence Force (ADF) members who have served at least one day since 1 January 1985.
There were also 330 confirmed suicide deaths discovered by analysis of the period 1 January 1985 and 31 December 1996, meaning a total of 2,093 confirmed suicide deaths that occurred between 1 January 1985 to 31 December 2022 among ADF members who have served at least one day since 1 January 1985.
Confirmed suicide deaths prior to 1997 were not included in this analysis as these are under reported compared to the suicides identified post-1997, due to the quality and completeness National Death Index (NDI) dataset, as there are gaps in identifying data in the NDI which limits the ability to link to Defence personnel data. Therefore, while we are confident that all the confirmed suicides included are true ADF member confirmed suicides, there may be more unlinked and unknown. As such any population study analysis of suicide deaths during this period would be misleading.
For completeness, the number of discovered suicides per year 1985–1996 is given in Table 19.
Year | Permanent and Reserve | Ex-serving | Total in all ADF service groups(a) |
|---|---|---|---|
1985 | n.p. | n.p. | 13 |
1986 | n.p. | n.p. | 7 |
1987 | n.p. | n.p. | 11 |
1988 | n.p. | n.p. | 11 |
1989 | 9 | 15 | 24 |
1990 | 7 | 16 | 23 |
1991 | 11 | 17 | 28 |
1992 | 11 | 22 | 33 |
1993 | 14 | 31 | 45 |
1994 | 8 | 35 | 43 |
1995 | 9 | 39 | 48 |
1996 | 13 | 31 | 44 |
Total(b) | 112 | 218 | 330 |
n.p. Not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated. In this case this is a result of low numbers being potentially identifying.
Notes:
- Consists of deaths by suicide in males and females for permanent, reserve and ex-serving ADF members.
- Suicide numbers are likely to be under-reported for this period 1985 to 1996 as there are gaps in identifying data in the National Death Index (NDI) which limits the ability to link to Defence personnel data. Therefore, while we are confident that all the confirmed suicides included are true ADF member confirmed suicides, there may be more unlinked and unknown.
Source: AIHW analysis of linked Defence historical personnel data–PMKeyS–NDI data 1985–2022.
Other Defence personnel factors that may be of interest
The Defence Personnel (PMKeyS) data contains other factors beyond those discussed in this report, that may be informative to analysis of ADF member suicide, notably:
- operational experience1
- ‘Conduct after capture’ training course attendance
- the unit2 a member worked within in the ADF
- the location a member lived in during their time with the ADF
- the occupation3 a member preformed within the ADF
The limitation of these PMKeyS factors is that they are not recorded with complete accuracy or are absent from the historical Defence personnel data. As a result, complete data for these service-related characteristics are only available from 2001 onwards. To consider a full account of a member's history by these factors, only those who were hired on or after 1 January 2001 could be included for analysis. This comprises 25% of the ex-serving study cohort for this report (ex-serving members who have served at least one day since 1 January 1985). Due to the smaller population size for analysis by these factors, there is greater difficulty in concluding statistically significant differences between groups.
Preliminary findings by these service-related characteristics are presented below with further investigation still ongoing. The monitoring period for deaths below is from 2001 to 2022.
Operational experience
For analysis by operational experience, 29% of ex-serving members had any operation experience and 71% had no operational experience. Of the ex-serving members with any operational experience, 46 died by suicide. There was no statistically significant difference in the suicide rate observed between ex-serving members with and without any operational experience.
Conduct after capture
Conduct After Capture (CAC) training, previously known as Resistance to Interrogation (RTI) training, is a Defence activity that prepares ADF personnel to understand the rigors of captivity and exploitation while surviving the capture situation with dignity (Conduct After Capture Training Support Services). Data for course attendance and course proficiency are available from 2001, however, only data for course proficiency was comprehensively recorded in the PMKeyS for the full period.
The AIHW and Department of Defence have worked in collaboration to investigate the available CAC training course data held by Defence. Complexities with the course data include changes over time to course name, structure, availability, target outcomes for proficiencies, and resulting proficiencies attained. These complexities impose limits on the quality and interpretation of the data.
At the initial onset of investigation, Defence provided course proficiency data for the majority of courses categorised broadly as CAC4. However, further investigation identified additional course proficiencies that may also be considered as CAC5. Preliminary AIHW analyses by CAC have been of the CAC courses that were provided in the first instance by Defence. The AIHW are continuing work with Defence to further explore and develop data sources to provide a comprehensive view of CAC attendance and proficiency.
Unit and location
Preliminary findings by unit or location showed that the frequency by which members move around the ADF makes it difficult to identify the effect of a specific unit or location on the outcome of death by suicide. Analysis by the number of movements between different units or locations is currently being investigated.
Occupation
There are many different descriptions used by Defence to describe ADF member occupations (over 100s of occupation descriptions). Disaggregating ADF members by these occupation descriptions would result in small cohort sizes for statistical analysis and comparisons. More recently, Defence have mapped ADF member occupation structures to higher level groupings called 'External occupation groups'. These groups are:
- Aviation
- Combat and security
- Communications and Cyber
- Engineering, Maintenance and Construction
- Enterprise and Command Support
- Health
- Intelligence
- Logistics.
Analysis by External occupation group is currently underway which includes a lookback analysis to capture an ADF member’s full occupation history.
- 'Operational experience’ covers a wide span of operation types, they can be overseas or domestic, and can be warlike or non-warlike. Regardless of the types of operational experience investigated the results described here hold.
- ‘Unit’ in terms of ADF service refers to the organisation within Defence where a member served.
- ‘Occupation’ here refers to the specific job a member performed while with the ADF.
- Course names and codes of CAC proficiencies provided: CAC LEVEL A TRAINING (P103655), CAC LEVEL B TRAINING (P103653), CAC LEVEL C HOSTAGE SURVIVAL MODULE 206760 (P021360), CAC LEVEL C PRISONER OF WAR MODULE 206762 (P021361), CAC LEVEL C FOREIGN GOVERNMENT DETENTION MODULE 206761 (P021359), CAC LEVEL C TRAINING 202521 (P103654), CAC MOD 2 (P103654), CAC ASSESSMENT CENTRE (P108770), CAC LEVEL C TRAINING (P103654), CAC LEVEL C HOSTAGE SURVIVAL MODULE (P021360), CAC LEVEL C FOREIGN GOV DETENTION MODULE (CSE) (P021359), CAC MOD 1 (P103653), CAC LEVEL C PRISONER OF WAR MODULE (P021361), CAC LEVEL B FOREIGN GOVERNMENT DETENTION MODULE (P104144), CAC LEVEL B HOSTAGE SURVIVAL MODULE (P101288), CAC LEVEL B PRISONER OF WAR MODULE (P100481), CAC TRG LEVEL C (P103654), FIELD INTELLIGENCE SUPPORT OPERATOR (P104144), PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS (P100481)
- These other CAC course proficiencies include: CAC LEVEL B LONG TERM INCARCERATION MODULE (P102080) and CONDUCT AFTER CAPTURE HOSTAGE SURVIVAL MODULE (CSE) (P102319)