Veteran Support (Victoria)

Veteran support

Wellbeing for current and former Victoria Police employees and their families.

Victoria Police has a range of wellbeing support services and programs available to current and veteran Victoria Police employees.

Everyone struggles from time to time. Receiving support from a trained professional can help to resolve issues that you may find yourself faced with in everyday life.

Police Veterans Support Victoria

Police Veterans Support Victoria Inc. (PVSV) is a not-for-profit organisation that provides a peer support program to police veterans, former employees and families of Victoria Police, through Veteran Peer Support Officers (VPSOs), who work as volunteers.

VPSOs are police veterans available to provide confidential support and referral services to those that may be experiencing mental health issues including PTSD, depression, anxiety, and alcohol and substance abuse. VPSOs are not counsellors and do not make psychological assessments. To seek support from PVSV or make a general enquiry, you can make contact via PVSV’s online contact form.

PVSV also issues eligible police veterans (including veteran Protective Services Officers) with the Veteran Benefit Card. The Veteran Benefit Card provides welfare support for Victoria Police officers once they have finished their career in policing, in recognition and appreciation of their service to the Victorian community.

The Veteran Benefit Card provides police veterans with a physical connection to the broader policing family as well as access to a range of discounts and benefits for various mental health and wellbeing services across Victoria, including offers from Chemist Warehouse, Supreme and Leader Caravans, ClassPass, FitBit, e&s, Samsung, The Pancake Parlour and more.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for the card you must be a police veteran – a Victoria Police officer (including Protective Services Officer) who has left the organisation after at least one full day of service. Police veterans can apply for the card at Police Veteran Support Victoria

Employee Assistance Program

Victoria Police continues to focus on improving employee wellbeing services. Changes to Victoria Police’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) have made it easier for current and former employees, as well as their families, to access counselling services.

Victoria Police’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an independent and confidential counselling service available to Victoria Police employees (current and former) and their immediate families. Our EAP is provided by SMG Health and Acacia Connection.

Some of the matters our EAP can provide support on include:

Achieving work life balance
Managing relationships
Managing parenting
Improving communication
Conflict resolution.

EAP services and treatment options include:

Face-to-face
Phone
E-treatment.

Contact

SMG Health: 1800 273 865
Acacia Connection: 1300 364 273

Wellbeing Services

Victoria Police’s internal Wellbeing Services provides tailored confidential wellbeing information, support, advice and referral services for current and veteran Victoria Police employees and their immediate families. Services include support for:

Critical Incident
Crisis
Trauma
Mental Health

You can speak directly with a dedicated wellbeing support officer who will assist you in finding the services and support you need.

Contact Phone: 9247 3344

Provisional Payment Pilot

If you have a work related mental health injury, you may be eligible to access payments for mental health treatment and services through the Victorian Government’s Provisional Payments Pilot. The pilot allows eligible emergency workers to access payments for reasonable medical treatment and services while their compensation claim is being determined. Victoria Police can access the pilot from 17 June 2019. All other eligible emergency workers can access the pilot from 1 July 2019.

Eligibility

The pilot is available to eligible current and veteran Victoria Police employees (including volunteer chaplains) who have submitted a compensation claim for a work related mental health injury.

Access the pilot

You can access the pilot through Victoria Police’s workers’ compensation claim process. When you lodge a workers’ compensation claim you will be contacted by the Human Resource Department Injury Management and WorkCover team.

The team will:

provide information on the pilot
advise whether you are eligible and how to access the pilot
ask if you would like to participate in the pilot.

If you decide to opt into the pilot Victoria Police will provide you with the Provisional Payment Pilot Opt In Consent Form.

Once you have completed and submitted the form, Victoria Police will commence paying for your reasonable medical treatment and services while your compensation claim is being determined via the usual process.

The pilot does not include contractors engaged through agencies or service providers that are external to the Victorian public sector.

To submit a workers’ compensation claim please email Victoria Police’s Human Resource Department Injury Management and Workcover team below.

Contact