Page 151 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2021

JUNE 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE INDUSTRY 149
ADDRESSING AND ACKNOWLEDGING PTS
STAND Tall for PTS (post-traumatic stress) was founded by Tony Dell, a Vietnam Vet- eran who spent 40 years of his life with un- diagnosed PTS. During this time the highs enabled him to play five seasons of Shef- field Shield cricket which included two test matches under Ian Chappell as his captain and some success in the advertising indus- try. But the lows were devastating.
After being diagnosed with PTS in 2008, he decided he needed to try to help the many thousands of other Viet- nam Veterans who, like him, had no idea why their lives had gone so wrong. This goal eventually expanded to include all other veterans and now engages with all First Responders.
With Sir Angus Houston becoming Pa- tron, Stand Tall has become a leading not- for-profit entity in the PTS and Mental
Trauma space in the past six years, starting when they became the charity attached to the Prime Min- ister’s Cricket Match in Canberra in early 2015. Later that year, Stand Tall hosted their first Inter- national Conference, PTSD15.
In 2016 there was a convoy of
military and first responder vehicles and per- sonnel travelling the highways of SE Austra- lia creating public awareness and conduct- ing scores of media interviews, and in 2017 there was another International Conference, PTS17. In 2018, Stand Tall partnered in with the Invictus Games for another convoy even bigger than the first one.
A third conference was talked about for 2019 and 2020; however the bushfires and the COVID pandemic put those plans on hold. PTS21 will be held this
September in the Brisbane Conference and Exhibition Centre at Southbank.
This event has been designed to be a results-oriented forum where 150 plus in- ternational and Australian experts will ar- rive at a series of irrefutable recommenda- tions to be presented to the authorities in a history-making report designed to improve treatment for PTS and Mental Trauma and so curb the resultant horrific suicide rate.
Details of this event can be seen at w w w. p t s 21. o r g
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