The topic of mental health will be front and centre at the region's inaugural Great South Coast Veterans Retreat.
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Held this weekend, the retreat will be the first of its kind for the region and will be attended by 10 returned soldiers from around Victoria and their partners.
The initiative is the brainchild of young veteran Adam Kent, who left the army in 2006 and is still involved in Army Reserves.
"I did a camp at Phillip Island last year with other veterans and I thought we could do something like this in Warrnambool," Mr Kent said.
"I've found a lot of people's perceptions of veterans is old men drinking beers at the RSL but there are so many younger veterans who are struggling to fit back into the towns they grew up in, they might have been away for 10 years and are still young men and women, and people don't know that they're struggling.
There are so many younger veterans who are struggling to fit back into the towns they grew up in.
- Adam Kent
"People want to support them but don't know how, the crowds at Anzac days are great but there's so much more you can do."
From Friday to Sunday RSL and Lyndoch buses will help guests explore Warrnambool, Port Fairy and Tower Hill through guided tours, yoga sessions, an experience at Deep Blue Mineral Spa and a barbecue lunch at Lake Pertobe.
The aim of the retreat, said Mr Kent, was to help veterans connect with other veterans and share their experiences.
"I was in the army from 2001 to 2006, within 12 months of joining I was in East Timor, then I went to Iraq which was completely different, the threat was really high, and then to Indonesia for the tsunami relief and the devastation was pretty full on," Mr Kent said.
"One of the things I've had explained to me which sort of makes sense is you have a 0 to 10 stress thermometer, and your average Joe would hover around three to four because we all have some sort of stress in our lives, but when you start getting up to the six, seven, eight level your body has a physical reaction to it.
"When you're in those sorts of environments for six months on end you're operating normally at eight, so then the challenge is when you come back and try to wind that back down.
"I've experienced it where you handle really serious things well and easily because it's what you've been trained for, but then you can have an emotional anger type of reaction to something really small. And that's where people go 'woah' and don't know how to handle it, whereas if you understood it more you can put out the fire rather than adding fuel to it so to speak."
The highlight of the weekend will be a formal dinner on the Saturday night with guest speakers, including Don Spinks OAM, a retired Army Regimental Sergeant Major and recently appointed Repatriation Commissioner of DVA, retired SAS Commander Harry Moffitt and Maria Augustus-Dunn, author of Married Quarter.
Local veterans and their families are invited to book a seat for the October 26 dinner.
"Part of my struggle has been getting out and fitting back in. Our intention with this is basically creating a peer support network," he said.
"I found in my job and through my experience you feel like no-one understands you and you don't really have anyone to talk to unless you get on the phone and a lot of people wait until they're in crisis to go and get help.
"I find so many people benefit now from joining in some activities and meeting people that have been through similar experiences and can comfortably talk about it and about mental health."
Leadership Great South Coast participant and project leader, Jan Mackenzie, said the initiative was an opportunity for veterans and their partners to come together for a weekend of connection, rejuvenation and immersion into the region.
"Local veterans will also be involved, with an aim of increasing connections within community, raising awareness of the issues veterans face when they reintegrate into civilian life and the impact on their families and community," she said.
The following weekend a community picnic will be held at Lake Pertobe on November 2 to mark Veteran's Mental Health Week.
"A large focus of what we do is with families because there is a ripple effect," Mr Kent said.
"We wanted to give the whole community an opportunity to attend."
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