CANBERRA, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- A number of government reforms and reviews have failed to reduce the suicide rate among Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel, a report has found.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Friday released its analysis of 325 confirmed deaths by suicide among current and former ADF personnel between 2001 and 2015.
It found that men were most likely to take their own lives, accounting for 92 percent, or 303 of the 325 deaths.
Slightly more than half of all the deaths (51 percent) were of people who were no longer serving in the ADF.
The suicide rate among men serving in the ADF on either a full-time or part-time basis was consistent with that of all Australian males.
However, men who had left ADF service were found to be 14 percent more likely to take heir own life than the wider population and twice as likely as ex-serving women.
"When compared with men in the Australian population, ex-serving personnel aged 18-29 had a significantly higher crude rate of suicide: 1.7 times higher than Australian men of the same age," the report said.
"Between 2007-09 and 2013-15, there was no statistically significant change in the crude suicide rate among ex-serving men."
The analysis, commissioned by the Department of Veterans' Affairs, found that some of the deceased were found to have similar characteristics such as often being discharged with a rank lower than officer.
The AIHW will work to identify further factors and indicators that can be used to prevent suicide deaths.
Dan Tehan, Australia's minister for defence personnel and minister for veterans' affairs, in 2017 conceded that further reforms were needed to prevent suicide among troops following a parliamentary inquiry.
