DVA institutional trauma and abuse

Dear Danielle,

Open Arms - Veterans and Families Counselling would really appreciate if you could take a few moments to complete a short survey about your recent experience with us.

To share your thoughts, please click on this link.

While completing the survey is entirely voluntary and you can remain anonymous, your feedback is highly valued as it helps Open Arms improve our services and better support future veterans and their families.

All responses are treated confidentially.

If you have any queries regarding this questionnaire, please email OPENARMS.FEEDBACK@dva.gov.au

Many thanks

Candice Bool

Regional Director

Open Arms - Veterans and Families Counselling

1800 011 046 OpenArms.gov.au www.facebook.com

Subject: Feedback Response – Open Arms Failure and Legal Escalation

28/07/2025

Dear Candice Bool,

I received your request for feedback. Here is mine:

Open Arms failed me, my brother, and every other second-generation survivor your department ignored.

My brother is dead. I live with 17 medical conditions, many from birth, directly linked to my father’s confirmed TCDD (Agent Orange) exposure during the Vietnam War. Despite this, your service did nothing. You offered no trauma-informed support, no escalation, and no acknowledgment of the systemic harm that destroyed our lives.

What I experienced at the hands of your institution was not support — it was institutional trauma and abuse. Being dismissed, neglected, and erased by the very service meant to help veterans’ families is retraumatising. You call it counselling. I call it complicity.

I have formally escalated this matter to the International Criminal Court under Article 15 of the Rome Statute for crimes against humanity. I have also lodged submissions with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime under the UNTOC framework, and referred the entire Australian Government legal department to the International Bar Association.

If you or your department have any questions, you may take it up with the ICC, the IBA, or the UNODC after 10am on Thursday. I will no longer be providing feedback to the same system responsible for the harm.

International Criminal Court

Annex A – Evidence of Institutional Harm and Strategic Retaliation

Section: Post-Trauma Abandonment and DVA Damage Control

Fifteen days after the suicide of my ex-Army brother, and nine days after my Open Arms therapist disappeared without warning during my ICC filing, I received a message from her. The therapist, Amanda, had ceased all contact without explanation during the most critical legal and emotional period of my life. Her reappearance occurred only after my brother’s death and after I had publicly confirmed my submission to the International Criminal Court under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, along with filings to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime under UNTOC and the International Bar Association.

My immediate reply was:

Amanda,

Fifteen days after my ex-Army brother takes his own life — and nine days after you disappeared without warning during my ICC filing — you message me now?

Looks more like DVA damage control than care.

I won’t be rescheduling. This breach is already documented.

This message and its timing reflect a clear pattern of institutional behaviour: sudden disengagement during periods of high trauma and legal escalation, followed by strategic outreach once legal liability becomes a threat.

It represents psychological abandonment, retraumatisation, and calculated damage control by a state-run service.

This incident is not an isolated error. It is part of a systemic pattern of harm, neglect, and reputational containment at the expense of victims. Open Arms is funded and operated by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Their failure to provide ethical, consistent care during a known crisis directly contributed to psychological harm.

This interaction is now formally entered into the annex as evidence of:

• Psychological abandonment

• Retaliatory silence

• Strategic re-engagement linked to legal exposure

• Institutional trauma

• DVA’s failure to protect survivors and second-generation victims

The breach is already documented. The legal record now reflects it.

28/07/2025