Defence Member and Family Helpline review

Established in 2012, the Defence Member Family Helpline (DMFH) provides 24/7 access to supports designed to help Defence members and their families manage the military way of life. The DMFH was identified in the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide with a recommendation to systematically analyse data from the DMFH to understand issues and trends and create opportunities to better assist members and families. The Department of Defence engaged HMA to conduct an independent review of the DMFH structure and service delivery model. The scope of the review included five focus areas: the supporting system and infrastructure, workforce issues, governance and monitoring, options to scale DMFH during critical events, and the risks and benefits of consolidating the DMFH with other existing Defence helplines. The review considered the focus areas alongside cross-cutting themes of people, process, technology and data.

Key tasks of the review included:

• Project initiation and planning
• Situation analysis, including input from publicly available and program documentation, quantitative call data, and preliminary consultations with key directors
• Review framework, including identifying review questions and a data scoping exercise
• Data collection, including consultations with internal and external stakeholders, focus groups with DMFH staff, and quantitative analysis of DMFH usage and performance data
• Final report including recommendations on options to improve service delivery and reporting across all aspects of the DMFH operations, and consideration of system integration across relevant areas of Defence

The DMFH review commenced in January 2025 and was completed in September 2025.