This week, we talk to Thomas Bailey, founder of Veteran Benefits Australia (VBA), a service dedicated to providing healthcare support for Australia’s veterans. Designed to help fill the gaps left by the government with regard to veteran support, the service has connected over 20,000 Aussie veterans to the healthcare services nationally that they are entitled to and can access for free, as well as providing free wellness packs for their benefit.
ISB: What was the driving force that led you to establish Veteran Benefits Australia?
TB: I got involved with mental health initiatives when I sadly lost my best friend to suicide about eight years ago. I wasn’t coping very well with it and wanted to get involved in mental health work as a way to give back and make a difference. I found a massive cohort of veterans were struggling with similar issues, so I wanted to direct my focus on a demographic that I feel was overlooked. I thought I would start an information hub designed to help veterans connect to services and educate them about the benefits and how to access those services.
ISB: What has been the most challenging aspect in running this organisation and how do manage to get past it?
TB: I think the sheer scale of the organisation and the growth and demand for the services from veterans and trying to keep up with this demand. We have needed to hire people ridiculously quickly across the whole team and as a result filled up our offices in Brisbane over the last couple of months. So, we needed to build a custom facility just to house all the staff and centralise all the patient care. The move in day happened last month and it was really challenging doing this while continuing to service the veteran community.
ISB: How does VBA help fill the gaps when it comes to veterans’ care and welfare?
TB: We provide a central place where veterans can access everything they need. We don’t just to connect them to services, we also educate them on the benefits of the services and help connect them nationally to services that will benefit their health and wellbeing. We connect about 500 veterans a week to different services, and we have helped over 30,000 veterans in the last three years.
ISB: How beneficial is it for you to have your family help you in running this organisation?
TB: I love having my family involved. They are always there to help in challenging times or when we need to really put our heads down and work. My sister is a doctor and does veteran care plans with a team of other doctors. My mum is a nurse assisting coordinate veteran care with our eight other nurses and my brother helps me with all the difficult tasks of admin, technology, and management of the VBA platform. It’s such a great organisation and we have really bonded over the shared passion for what we do and have become a lot closer as a family while working on the project.
ISB: VBA has also partnered and supported other charities – can you tell us a bit about these partnerships and why they mean much to the organisation?
TB: Yes, we have supported many different charity programs that don’t get the funding they need from the government. We have helped with fundraising and donations over the last three years and donated and raised over $2.6m to assist them with everything from social wellbeing programs to community programs.
We’ve also been lucky to partner with and assist charities over the last few years including mates4Mates, PTSD Dogs Australia, Young Veterans, Invisible injuries, Salute For Service and many more.
ISB: What is your vision for Veterans Benefits Australia in the next couple of years?
TB: My goal and vision for VBA is to grow the team large enough to keep helping as many veterans as possible with as many services as possible to improve their overall health and mental wellbeing and continue to connect Aussie Veterans. I want to build out all our services to completely cover all the healthcare offerings veterans need as well as build five new veteran health hubs in the next two years. We also want to build a mobile medical service to help veterans at home who can’t leave their homes for medical reasons, rural and remote locations or those suffering from social anxiety that can’t leave their home. We also aim to donate over $10m in the next five years to veteran charities doing amazing work in the community.
