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Our history

We began in 1995 as the National Centre for War-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Funded by the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), and established in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, our mission was to improve the recognition and treatment of PTSD and related conditions within the veteran population.

ACPMH's founding staff, 1996

By 2000, the situation was very different. We needed to expand our focus beyond PTSD and to consider the mental health needs of other groups. Our mandate was expanded to cover the full range of mental health problems in veterans and serving personnel, while retaining our specialist focus on trauma. We broadened our activities to encompass posttraumatic mental health problems within the general community following accidents, violent crime, terrorism and natural disasters. In 2000, we changed our name to The Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health to better reflect this broader focus.