Digital mental health platform for veterans and their families

Open Arms is a counselling service for veterans and their families, supported by Veterans’ Affairs. Founded originally by Vietnam veterans, it is now available for all veterans and their families.

In April 2025, Open Arms launched Shoulder to Shoulder ꟷ an innovative 24/7 digital mental health platform supporting veterans and their families. The platform is free, anonymous and professionally moderated. Two separate online forums operate, one for current and ex-serving members and one for their families and carers. This dual approach recognises that veterans and families face distinct challenges requiring tailored environments.

Shoulder to Shoulder was launched in the lead up to Anzac Day, a time that can trigger strong emotional responses, including grief, sadness, and isolation. The platform embeds lived experience at its core. It is a direct response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide’s recommendation that peer support is integral to holistic mental health.

Shoulder to Shoulder helping veterans and their families access round the clock digital mental health support.
Image: Veterans’ Affairs

Working together

Shoulder to Shoulder is a collaborative effort between multiple specialised partners, each contributing unique expertise. It shows how strategic partnerships can amplify government capability and community impact.

Open Arms led the project management, governance and strategic oversight of the platform launch. It provided lived experience insights shared through the Lived Experience Advisory Group, and clinical advice from Open Arms clinicians.

SANE Australia delivered the platform’s technical infrastructure, moderation, clinical safety protocols, and operational delivery.

The platform’s service model was developed in partnership with Phoenix Australia to ensure culturally appropriate service delivery through trauma-informed and military-specific training to moderators and peer supporters.

This partnership co-design model blends public sector leadership with specialist service delivery, clinical assurance, and authentic lived experience. The result is a platform that veterans and families recognise as culturally appropriate and professionally robust, something that is difficult for a single organisation to achieve alone.

Benefits for the community

The online forums provide a lifeline for individuals, reaching those who need it most ꟷ veterans carrying invisible wounds, partners feeling overwhelmed by their loved one's service-related challenges, and families navigating systems that can feel foreign and intimidating.

Shoulder to Shoulder provides a crucial soft entry point for those not ready for formal counselling or those awaiting assignment to Open Arms peers or clinicians. During critical waiting periods, members can find immediate solidarity and hope, rather than face their struggles alone.

The anonymous environment allows people to be vulnerable without judgement, often for the first time. Members can share coping strategies born from lived experience, celebrate small victories together, and gently encourage each other toward professional support when needed.

More than 350 registered members have actively engaged in Shoulder to Shoulder since it launched. Early feedback includes encouraging stories of renewed hope, and reports of reduced shame and increased confidence to seek further help.

Shoulder to Shoulder is benefiting the community by restoring human connection and dignity to those who have served Australia and their families.

Find out more

Open Arms (n.d.) Online Programs, Open Arms website, accessed 11 August 2025.