The Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package

The Defence, Veterans’ and Families’ Acute Support Package provides short-term, flexible support to help eligible veterans and veteran families adjust to new and challenging life circumstances that may result in the family experiencing crisis. 

New and challenging life circumstances are situations or events over which a person has no control, which have occurred recently, and are impacting on the veteran or veteran family’s wellbeing, or their ability to function. The impact of a new and challenging life circumstance is unique to each family. 

The types of life circumstances which may result in the family experiencing crisis can include mental and physical heath episodes, including substance abuse issues, incidents of self-harm and attempted suicide. They may also involve family issues such as conflicts, break­downs and violence; or sudden, significant events such as a death in the family. 

There are specific eligibility criteria for the Acute Support Package, which include age, the veteran’s eligibility for certain payments, and relationships. For bereaved families, eligibility includes whether the veteran’s death was related to military service and occurred less than 2 years ago. Where a family may not be eligible, DVA can help connect them with other programs and gov­ernment or community services and supports. 

Under the Acute Support Package, a family will have a support plan developed with appropriate and beneficial services to meet their needs. 

These are services that may: 

  • help around the home, such as cleaning and meal preparation, to help a family main­tain day-to-day activities during times of increased stress 
  • support children, such as with childcare and wellbeing, academic and extra-curricular services (including tutoring, music lessons and sporting activities), which may help a family cope at a time when they may be experiencing challenging events 
  • help reduce barriers to participating in the community, such as short courses and group activities 
  • support broader, positive lifestyle changes, such as counselling which addresses prob­lematic behaviours, and psychosocial services to build resilience and confidence or provide social connectedness. 

The DVA website has recently been refreshed to provide clearer information on who may be eli­gible, how to access the program, and the types of supports that may be funded under the Acute Support Package. If you would like more infor­mation about the package please visit www.dva. gov.au/asp, or call us on 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372), from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, and say ‘Acute Support Package’ when prompted.

The Acute Support Package is not a primary response service in emergency situations. 

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger call triple zero (000). To seek support from Open Arms – Veterans & Families Coun­selling, call 1800 011 046.