‘Empowering veterans and their families to connect with services, support, and their community.’

 

Transition is a difficult process for many, presenting unique challenges for even the most capable veteran. Often it will include dealing with issues like finding work, integrating into a new community, changing family circumstances for partners and kids, and even finding out how Medicare works.

Many organisations offer support to the veteran community and their families during and after transition from the ADF. But the issue for many veterans is knowing what is available and understanding how to access that support. The sheer volume and complexity of information presented online can often make it difficult to find, access, navigate, and connect with those services that suit veterans’ and families’ needs. There is plenty of evidence that this situation can generate confusion, frustration, and anxiety among many veterans and their families.

My name is Matt Brennan. I am a veteran with 30 years of Army service. In April 2018, I transitioned into civilian life like so many others. As a consultant, I then found myself in the unique position of supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs by conducting a desktop review into the entire Australian veteran support sector – to better understand what was available in terms of service and support nationally.

What I discovered was just how large, complex, and fragmented the sector is and how confusing and complicated it can be for veterans and their families seeking assistance from the thousands of organisations and programs available. After 30 years, I admit that I knew of less than 20% of what was out there myself!

Many veterans don’t know about what is available (and often don’t know where to start), so they may not seek assistance when they should. Many of our community are too proud, selfless, humble, or even embarrassed to overtly seek help. As a result we often don’t access what we or our families are entitled to, or worse, may experience negative mental health impacts, which can be catastrophic and tragic. Surely, I thought, with the obvious goodwill in the sector, and the available technology, there was an opportunity here to help our community to improve their lives.

My experience with the veteran support sector early in my career transition, and the ‘no brainer’ case for change in the way that access to support is provided, stuck with me. I discussed this with old friend, entrepreneur, and business mentor Ian Storie. ‘Well why don’t we build something?’ was his response. In mid-2019 we created Servulink, a social enterprise and veteran supporting technology ‘start up’ specifically designed to empower veterans and their families through technology to improve their lives. Throughout 2019-2022 we built and tested a web-based app to enable veterans and their families to find and access vital services and support for free, anytime, anywhere in Australia.

In July 2022, we started a strategic collaboration with RSL Australia and five months later launched the Veterans' Catalogue with the personal, verbal endorsement of the Chief of Defence Force. The Veterans' Catalogue is sponsored by RSL and ‘powered by’ Servulink.

Today, the original Servulink vision: ‘Empowering veterans and their families to connect with services, support, and their community’ is finally being realised. The Veterans’ Catalogue is proving its value through performance (almost 8,000 users and over 30,000 searches to date) – promoting and enabling veterans’ proactive engagement with support when and where it’s needed.

Importantly, the Veterans’ Catalogue’s ability to improve access to critical services for our vulnerable veterans and those who support them has been strongly validated by the outcomes to date from the Defence and Veteran Suicide Royal Commission.

When I transitioned, there was no ‘one-stop shop’ for simple, coherent guidance or advice available for veterans and their families despite advances in technology and online access to information. For the Servulink team, the Veterans’ Catalogue represents the culmination of almost four years of detailed research, analysis, technology development, and focused engagement across the Australian veteran support sector.

The Veterans’ Catalogue, powered by Servulink, seeks to transform the Australian veteran support landscape by empowering our veterans and their families to discover, navigate, and access the services, support, and communities they need to improve their lives simply and quickly.