The Hon Bruce Billson MP
Minister for Veterans’ Affairs
Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence
Interview – ABC South West WA, Statewide Drive with Helena Webb 6 March 2007 4:07pm
Subject – Extension of the veterans Heart Health program

HELENA WEBB: Improving the mental and physical wellbeing of our veterans is the aim of Heart Health. Now, the program that has been running since the year 2000, the new Heart Health program started this month and will run for a 52-week period. Minister for Veterans' Affairs and also Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, Bruce Billson. Good afternoon, Minister.

BRUCE BILLSON: Hi, to you, Helena and Statewide Drive listeners.

HELENA WEBB: Thank you. Now, Minister, how does the Heart Health program work?

BRUCE BILLSON: Well, it's a terrific program that's managed through the Vietnam Veterans' counselling service. It reaches out to veterans that have served overseas and that includes peacekeeping and peacemakers and also veterans that have had service-related emotional health concerns and have a white card for those conditions, they get involved in this program.
It looks at physical activity, dietary, how to manage depressive symptoms, if that's a concern in their lives. How to improve their overall fitness levels and therefore earn and work towards the best possible quality of life for themselves, notwithstanding their service-related conditions.

HELENA WEBB: Minister, the program was originally designed for our Vietnam vets, however, it's now been extended to other veterans. Why?

BRUCE BILLSON: Well, we've seen the benefits, Helena. What's been a terrific initiative that's helped over 5000 Vietnam veterans across Australia has seen their quality of life, their lifestyles, improve dramatically through this program. As a result we saw fit to expand the eligibility for the program.

It's a 52-week program, as I mentioned, exercise, self-management systems, Helena, that if someone may have an anger management issue that's related to the trauma and the stress of their military service, that can very much affect them and as well as their relationships and looking at smoking, nutrition, exercise, even how to consume alcohol responsibly and throughout the course of the 52 weeks those changes in lifestyle and behaviour, combined with the support of having fellow veterans around them – and that's a great tonic that shouldn't be underestimated as well – we see improvements in their wellbeing and that's why we've expanded this program.

HELENA WEBB: How many veterans have gone through the program so far?

BRUCE BILLSON: We've seen 5000 veterans go through the program since the year 2000. What we're doing at the moment is establishing more groups, in Western Australia, there's a group in Murdoch just to the south of Perth and Joondalup. We've got a third group at Bassendean as well and then four more groups that we're looking to start up in the coming months. And there's usually about 20 veterans per group. It's a way of supporting each other, gaining some new insights about better lifestyles, how to manage their conditions and how to get the best possible quality of life and that's why we're so keen to see it expanded.

HELENA WEBB: Minister, does this program complement any other programs?

BRUCE BILLSON: Yes, it does. We've got quite a range of programs. I mentioned the issue around alcohol consumption, the right mix program is a very important part of our support for the veterans community, also the general counselling issues, our men and women of the Australian Defence Forces have been asked to do some very demanding and challenging things throughout our military history and we understand that that can impact on their emotional health, their physical wellbeing. So it's not just about treatment. We provide these sorts of programs and we also recognise that a distance program is needed for those veterans that are living away in more remote areas so that they can benefit from these insights and educational materials and also enjoy the best possible quality of life available.

HELENA WEBB: So what are the chances of a correspondence model for our many veterans in regional WA who don't like to travel to the metropolitan area?

BRUCE BILLSON: That's what we're working on right at this very minute. We're expected to have that up and going by mid-year. What we're recognising is many veterans do live away from major population centres, but their needs are no less compelling and we need to make sure that our programs can adapt to almost a distance type education model where veterans can come together, perhaps through the use of technology and computer aided tools like email and chat rooms, have access via phone or other avenues to experts in the field of health, work on materials like food diaries and the like, where they can take account of their food intake and benefit from the program notwithstanding that they may live some distance away from the major population centres. So expect to see that in mid-year.
HELENA WEBB: Well, it's good to see we're looking after our veterans. Thanks so much for joining us.

BRUCE BILLSON: Thanks for your interest, Helena.