The Naval Association

The Naval Association

of Australia

Subject: Vietnam Veterans - Sons & Daughters Health Study [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Could you distribute to your members / clients / interested parties.

Please find attached an invitation to participate in a discussion regarding the health of sons and daughters of Vietnam Veterans.

The Centre for Military and Veterans Health (CMVH) is conducting this study.
Also attached is the background information for interested participants.

The discussion will be held during the week beginning 28th May 2007.
Should you have any queries regarding this matter, please direct them to CMVH - Dr Ruth McLaughlin 07 3346 4960.

Kind Regards Patrice Meers Office Manager
VVCS - Veterans & Veterans Families Counselling Service
Townsville
Department of Veteransʼ Affairs
Ph (07) 4723 9155 Fax (07) 4723 9149

A service founded by Vietnam veterans

16^th May 2007

Re: Invitation to participate in an important discussion regarding the health of the children of Vietnam Veterans

The Department of veterans Affairs has commissioned the Centre for Military and Veterans Health to develop a study design and protocol to investigate whether service in Vietnam has impacted on the health of the sons and daughters of veterans.

To date there have been a scattering of smaller scale studies which have suggested that the health outcomes for the children of veterans may be poorer than for the rest of the community.

CMVH have developed the protocol and methods to a stage where we need to determine if the questions we will be raising and the methods of getting the veteran family community engaged is appropriate, or if we need to develop alternative ways ahead. This step is vital to making sure that the study will meet the needs of the veteran community and their families.

What we would like is the opportunity to get veterans, their spouses and child or two together in a suitable location to generally discuss the study and to review where we have got to so far. We need frank input and the general way would be that we would have a group of veterans and moderator, another group with spouses and a group with the children.

This may be the most important opportunity you and your family may get to express your views and influence the direction of the study. Your contribution may do much to advance the well being of your family in the future, and equally importantly to perhaps aiding the families of the young veterans currently serving overseas.

The discussions will be held during the week beginning 28^th May 2007. Further details will be advised upon your expression of interest.

Your expressions of interest in being included in the discussion group can be coordinated through Dr Ruth McLaughlin by phoning 07 3346 4960.

Dr Peter Nasveld
Research Manager
Centre for Military and Veterans Health
University of Queensland

The Intergenerational Health Effects of Military Service

The Centre for Military and Veterans’ Health

The Centre for Military and Veterans' Health (CMVH) is an innovative, multi-discipline centre, focusing specifically on the health of Australian Defence Force members during and after their service. CMVH is a UQ led consortia, with University of Adelaide and Charles Darwin University, supported by the Department of Defence and the Department of Veterans' Affairs, as an Australian Government initiative.

CMVH is the major driver for research to be conducted for Defence Health and The Department of Veterans' Affairs. There are significant opportunities for interaction with other Defence organisations and both the public and private sector. The Centre interacts with a range of health education and research organisations both nationally and internationally.

Background

DVA want to begin to explore the effect of military service on social, psychological and physical health of military families with a specific focus on children. The research proposal will initially focus on the health and psychosocial outcomes for the children of Vietnam Veterans, already identified to be a high risk group for suicide ⁽¹⁾, however, it is envisaged that the protocol will have wider applicability to the military.

The Vietnam veteran community has over the years raised concerns about the mental health, emotional well-being and physical health of their sons and daughters. One major concern is the perception that their children are more unwell when compared to children in the general community. In Morbidity of Vietnam Veterans: A Study in the Health of Australia’s Vietnam Veteran Community (DVA 1998) Vietnam veterans reported a high prevalence of health problems among their partners and children. Furthermore, it was reported that children of Vietnam veterans had a substantially higher rate of suicide than that experienced by the general Australian community.

In response to the concerns of Vietnam veterans and their families, the Australian Government announced that it would examine the feasibility of conducting a study into the health of children of Vietnam veterans. An independent advisory committee, the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), was appointed by the Repatriation Commission for this purpose.

The feasibility study identified a number of significant issues that could impact on the success of any future research into intergenerational health effects of Vietnam service. These issues included difficulties in locating and recruiting the children of Vietnam veterans across the three services, while avoiding recruitment bias, and taking into account other factors which may impact on the health of the son or daughter, such as the role of the mother or other family members and other environmental influences. Although the report proposes a pilot study, the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Bruce Billson announced that “staged approach” research will commence this year with a view to supporting early action.

The Centre for Military and Veterans’ Health has been appointed to develop a “sound and workable” research protocol in response to the Feasibility Study into a Health Study of the Sons and Daughters of Vietnam Veterans (DVA 2006). This work will build on the work of the Deployment Health Surveillance Program, which is conducting cross-sectional studies of serving and ex-serving personnel who have deployed on specific operations and which aims to eventually develop a longitudinal health surveillance system for personnel who have served in the military.

It is hoped that the protocols developed will enable the DVA to gain meaningful insight sooner, than if the pilot study pathway had been followed, so as to improve and better target health support and services available for the children of Vietnam veterans.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to develop a generic research protocol that will be used to investigate the intergenerational health outcomes of military service.

The objectives of this project are to:

· conduct a review of the relevant literature for previous research and current work which will inform the study methodology

· develop the research questions in consultation with DVA

· produce a research protocol (the entire protocol, including the contact and recruitment strategy and any developed instruments will be pre-tested)

· develop and document a plan for data analysis and data linkage

Processes

CMVH drew on its academic network, both within the CMVH consortium (University of Queensland, University of Adelaide and Charles Darwin University) and outside, to assemble a team of national academic staff that have expertise in intergenerational research, public health, social welfare, child and adolescent mental health, paediatrics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) linkage analysis.

This team, in association with the Research Pillar of CMVH, have been responsible for developing the research protocol which will determine whether the children of Vietnam veterans have a different health status to children of other military personnel and children of the general community.

The entire protocol, including the contact and recruitment strategy and any developed data collection instruments, will be pre-tested. The intent of the pre-testing is to determine if the protocol, processes and instruments are feasible and it will involved qualitative research of the target audience i.e. feedback/discussion forum with the study population and key stakeholders. The pre-test will be conducted in a workshop environment and seek feedback and discussion which would then be used to refine the protocol.

The objectives of the pre-testing are:

· to test whether our research strategy is acceptable

· to seek advice on aspects of methodology particularly recruitment and the lived experience

· to determine if the protocol, processes and instruments are acceptable and feasible

Pre-testing will be conducted with Vietnam veterans, spouses of Vietnam veterans and the sons and daughters of Vietnam veterans. It is anticipated that the pre-testing would be conducted with ~10 people in each group and that the groups be conducted independently. In order to try and recruit a ‘non-biased’ sample for pre-testing veterans or their offspring who are interested in participating in a health study will be asked to nominate another veteran or their offspring who are not interested in participating, in order to gain an insight into approaches that could be adopted to try and capture this ‘uninterested’ population.

Pre-testing the methodology

Aspects of the research methodology that will be evaluated during pre-testing are:

The expectations of the study population for the proposed study
1. What do the veterans and the offspring hope to gain from a study into the physical, mental and social health of children of Vietnam veterans?; and
2. What are the broad health problems that are perceived by the veterans and the offspring of the veterans?
3. What are the services that veterans and their offspring believe should be provided by DVA?
Reactions of the respondents to the research procedures:
1. Acceptability of the methods used to establish contact with the study population;
2. Acceptability of the questions asked; and
3. Willingness of the respondents to answer the questions and collaborate with the study.
The data-collection tools will be pre-tested to determine:
1. How best to implement the survey
2. Whether there is any need to revise the format or presentation of the questionnaire
3. The tolerance of completing the proposed questionnaires (i.e. how long they take to complete)
Proposed qualitative research:
1. Do veterans and their offspring feel that qualitative work is a suitable means of exploring the broad health problems experienced?
2. Are there other areas/issues we should explore further through qualitative research?