DVA Family Counselling: How Veteran Families Access Free, Confidential Support

What DVA Family Counselling Actually Means

Family counselling backed by the Department of Veterans' Affairs is not a single program. It is a set of pathways and the one that fits your family depends on your circumstances. Getting this distinction right saves a lot of wasted phone calls.

The main family counselling pathway is Open Arms. Separately, Veteran Gold Card and White Card arrangements may fund clinically required treatment for eligible cardholders, but those arrangements are not the same as Open Arms family or relationship counselling. We will cover both, so you know which door to knock on.

A common mistake we see is families assuming they need a claim approved before anyone can talk to a counsellor. For Open Arms, that is not true. For card-based treatment, it usually is. Knowing the difference matters when you are tired and just want help quickly.

Who Can Access Open Arms Family Counselling

Open Arms is the broadest and fastest pathway and most veteran families qualify. The service grew out of the Vietnam Veterans' Counselling Service founded in 1982 and the name reflects an image of soldiers in a field signalling helicopters home, arms open, families welcoming them back.

According to the Open Arms eligibility criteria, counselling is available to family members of anyone who has served one day of continuous full-time service in the ADF. That is a very low threshold by design. The people who can access support include:

• Partners of current and former ADF members
• Dependent children of veterans
• Former partners within five years of separation or while co-parenting a child under 18
• Parents and siblings in specific bereavement circumstances, including where a service person has died through suicide or a service-related incident

Sons and daughters of any age of living Gold Card holders from any conflict or operation are also eligible, as set out in the Open Arms eligibility matrix. If you are unsure whether you qualify, the service takes a beneficial approach, meaning people in genuine need are usually offered support while eligibility is confirmed.

The whole point is that you do not need to prove anything complicated to make the first call. You ring, you explain your situation and the team works out where you fit.

What Open Arms Counselling Covers and What It Costs

This is the part that surprises a lot of families: the service is genuinely free and available around the clock. There is no card required, no claim to lodge and no out-of-pocket cost for eligible people.

Open Arms can provide individual, couple and family counselling to help build resilience and improve mental health and wellbeing. You can reach the service for free and confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Counsellors are professionally qualified psychologists or social workers and many have lived experience of military service or military family life.

Beyond one-on-one sessions, Open Arms runs a range of free group programs for partners and family members. The Open Arms group programs include options such as Connected Couples, parenting programs, Recovery from Trauma and Stepping Out, which supports the move from military to civilian life. These are usually co-facilitated by a clinician alongside someone with lived experience.

The service is also a real investment, not a token gesture. In 2023-24, DVA provided nearly $137 million to support mental health and wellbeing across the veteran community, with Open Arms providing 24-hour free and confidential support to serving members, veterans and families as part of that commitment.

The Other Pathway: DVA Card-Funded Family Treatment

The second pathway is more involved and this is where the claims process comes in. It is also where families most often get tripped up, so here is the honest version.

If a veteran holds a Veteran Gold Card, their partner and dependent children can access certain DVA-funded health services in their own right under specific circumstances, including some mental health treatment. The cards available to veterans and their families are explained on the DVA cards for you and your family page. Gold Card access depends on meeting one of DVA’s eligibility pathways. Under MRCA, this may include being eligible for the Special Rate Disability Pension or being assessed at 60 or more impairment points. Some veterans are issued a card automatically, while others may need to apply or have eligibility assessed through the claims process.

There is also an important limit worth knowing before you book anything. The DVA guidelines for psychologists confirm that DVA does not fund psychologists to provide couples or relationship therapy and the same restriction applies to DVA-funded social workers. In both cases, DVA points families to Open Arms for that kind of support. So if relationship counselling is what you need, Open Arms is your service, not a card-funded private psychologist. 

For a veteran's own mental health treatment, the Non-Liability Health Care program funds care for any mental health condition without proving service caused it, which is a faster door than a full claim. But that covers the veteran, not the wider family, in most situations.

A Practical Way to Work Out Which Pathway Fits

When families contact us about DVA family counselling, we usually separate the issue into three questions:

• Does someone need counselling now? If yes, Open Arms is usually the first call because it does not require an approved claim or DVA card.
• Is the veteran seeking treatment for their own mental health? If yes, NLHC or card-funded treatment may be relevant.
• Is the family asking about longer-term DVA-funded treatment access? If yes, the veteran’s accepted conditions, card status and dependant eligibility need to be checked before assuming anything is covered.

The common delays happen when families book the wrong provider type, assume couples therapy is covered by a private DVA-funded psychologist, or treat Gold Card access as automatic for every family member. Sorting that early can save time and help the family get to the right support pathway sooner.

How Service Affects the Whole Family

The reason these services exist is grounded in clear evidence, not goodwill alone. Service shapes a household and the data backs that up.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that 238,000 children were living with veteran parents in Australia in 2021. Of those children with a long-term health condition and aged 15 or over, around half had a mental health condition. That is a meaningful share of young people growing up in households touched by service.

Partners carry strain too. AIHW research into veteran families draws on the Vietnam Veterans Family Study, which found partner mental health was significantly linked to a veteran's own symptoms, including post-traumatic stress. Caring for someone who is unwell, while holding a family together through postings and transitions, takes a toll that often goes unspoken.

None of this means a veteran family is destined for difficulty. It means support is sensible, available and worth using early rather than waiting for a crisis.

Where Veterans First Consulting Fits In

We want to be straight with you about what we do and do not do here. We are not a counselling service and we are not Open Arms. If your family needs to talk to someone today, call Open Arms or in an emergency call 000.

What we do is help veterans access the entitlements that open up the wider DVA support system, including the Gold Card pathway that brings family members into DVA-funded treatment. Our team includes former DVA delegates and we have supported over 9,000 veterans through the claims process. When DVA accepts a claim and the veteran meets the relevant card or dependant eligibility criteria, further treatment and support options may become available.

That is the practical link. Open Arms helps your family with the emotional side from day one. Getting a claim right can support access to card-based entitlements where DVA accepts the claim and the relevant eligibility criteria are met. We are an independent, paid claims-support service, and we explain our process clearly before you choose to proceed.

Reaching Out Is a Strength, Not a Weakness

Your family stood beside you through every posting and every hard week and they have earned support in their own right. Open Arms gives them a free, confidential, military-aware service they can use today, no claim required. For longer-term household support, the foundation is a well-prepared DVA claim and a clear understanding of the card-based entitlements that may apply.