The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Longitudinal Wellbeing Project is being expanded to include current serving Australian Defence Force (ADF) members who are DVA clients.
This marks an important step in building a more complete understanding of wellbeing across the full military lifecycle.
Established in partnership with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the project combines DVA data with ABS data. This enables researchers to examine long-term wellbeing outcomes.
Until now, the project has largely focused on veterans and their families. Including current serving members who are DVA clients will provide a more comprehensive view of wellbeing outcomes over time.
This strengthened evidence base will help inform improvements to policies, programs and services that support serving members, veterans and their families.
A range of DVA administrative information will be included as part of the project. This includes de-identified DVA information and data that helps determine representation in veteran groups, such as participation in specific DVA programs or services.
It also includes aggregate claims and injury information, such as the number of claims lodged and summarised injury details.
Importantly, clinical records are not shared. Data on service usage, such as veteran card type and the number of DVA services accessed, will also be included to provide a more complete picture of support utilisation.
By improving the quality and depth of data available, the Longitudinal Wellbeing Project plays a critical role in strengthening support to those who serve, and those who have served.
Protecting the privacy of members is a central feature of the project. All data is de‑identified before it is provided for research, meaning names, addresses and other identifying details are removed.
Researchers only access data within secure ABS environments, and strict controls are applied to ensure individuals cannot be identified in any outputs.
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, members can 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. Once data has been transferred, on August 1, and de‑identified, it cannot be removed.
Defence encourages all members to seek out information and have informed conversations about the project.
By improving the quality and depth of data available, the Longitudinal Wellbeing Project plays a critical role in strengthening support to those who serve, and those who have served, now and into the future.
