About the 24 Months On Conference

A Veteran Health & Wellbeing Conference — 7 October 2026, Canberra

Two years ago, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide handed down its final report. 24 Months On is our stocktake of what's changed since, and our answer to what still needs to change.

This is a positive story. It's about being the change we want to see: bringing researchers, clinicians, advocates and veterans themselves into one room for an open, honest conversation grounded in research and evidence, looking squarely at what's working, and charting a genuine way forward.

We're taking Pro Patria to Canberra. In partnership with Charles Sturt University, we're building on the success of 12 Months On in 2025 with a full day of world-class research, clinical practice and lived experience — twelve sessions, one day, one shared purpose.

What the day is built around:

✅ Taking stock of the Royal Commission's impact. Two years on, we're asking whether its recommendations are translating into real change for veterans and their families — and where the system still falls short of the promise made to those who serve.

✅ Sharing leading-edge clinical research and practice. From hyperbaric oxygen therapy and ketamine treatment to medicinal cannabis, nutrition and metabolic approaches to mental health, biomarkers for mild traumatic brain injury, and exposure history — we're bringing emerging, veteran-specific evidence into one room, across disciplines that rarely share a stage.

✅ Surfacing the systemic and policy barriers to care. Compensation and superannuation offsetting, treatment-approval delays, institutional betrayal of women veterans, and cost-containment frameworks that ration evidence-based care — named clearly, and put in front of the people who can act on them.

✅ Proposing a practical pathway forward. The day doesn't end on critique. It ends with a concrete reform pathway built on cooperative advocacy between DVA, Defence, policymakers and advocacy groups — something the room can act on, not just agree with.

Pro Patria Centre is a small charity, largely powered by volunteers. We're building something different — a new, positive narrative and direction for veteran health and wellbeing — and everyone in that room on 7 October is part of it.