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Moral Injury: Organisational and Clinical Challenges in the Veteran Space

Thursday, May 21, 2026
4:33 PM - 4:34 PM

Speaker

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A/prof Jonathan Lane
Chief Psychiatrist, Dva
Department of Veterans' Affairs

Moral Injury: Organisational and Clinical Challenges in the Veteran Space

Abstract Document

Moral Injury (MI), as a multidimensional syndrome with a range of symptoms, is of increasing interest and concern both nationally and internationally. Unfortunately, the field of MI is still in a somewhat immature and developmental state (Litz, 2025; Litz & Walker, 2025). This presents many challenges for how it is considered from a governmental, organisational, and clinical perspective. These challenges include the nosology of the diagnosis itself; to what extent exposure or potential exposure during military service leads to the presence of symptoms; how it has been included in the DSM-5-TR as a Z-code in the categorical model of the DSM-V-TR and what that actually means (Mattson, et al, 2025); as well as what treatments best suit the veteran population (Litz, 2025). This presentation will look at these issues from both a policy and clinical perspective, noting the need for government agencies such as the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to manage a wide range of both policy and implementation perspectives in regard to MI.

Biography

A/Prof Lane, FRANZCP, MBBS (Hons), PhD, has been in the Army since 1989 and is also an Afghanistan veteran. He is a clinician in private practice, as well as the inaugural Chief Psychiatrist for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (DVA); the Psychiatry Lead for the University of Tasmania School of Medicine; a Lieutenant Colonel in Australian Army Reserve; and a member of multiple national and State advisory boards. As a nationally recognised expert in his field, he is passionate about lived experience led, culturally informed and transdiagnostic interventions that have functional outcomes for the whole person rather than just a specific diagnosis.
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