DVA can impose a communication plan: a single point of contact, scheduled calls only, no extra emails, and a warning that disclosures of self-harm may be referred to police or DVA Security. They will usually cite a “mutually respectful behaviour” policy. Sometimes that is a response to genuine risk. Sometimes it is a response to a veteran who has been made angry by unanswered claims. Your job is not to win that moral argument in a phone call. It is to get the restriction documented, adjusted, and, if it is harming the claim, reviewed.
Do these five things immediately
- 1Ask in writing for the documents that led to the restriction, the review date, and the name of the decision-maker. FOI if they do not send them.
- 2Nominate an advocate or support person as an additional contact so the claim does not freeze when you are unwell.
- 3Ask for reasonable adjustments under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992: written communication if calls spike your symptoms, extra time, a support person on the line, contact during nominated hours. Attach a treating clinician letter that describes the disability and the adjustment, not your grievance.
- 4Stop the rapid-fire follow-ups that triggered it. One letter a fortnight, copied to the SPOC, with a numbered list, is enough. Frequency is what they will use against you.
- 5If a police welfare check happens, record the date and what was said. Ask your psychiatrist, later, whether that event aggravated symptoms. That opinion is for CDDA and for any later DDA argument. It is not a reason to call the station.
Do not threaten staff. Do not use insulting language in emails you will later attach to an Ombudsman complaint. If you are in crisis, call Open Arms or 000, not the delegate. The DVA letter will have already told you that self-harm disclosures can be referred out — that is a reason to use clinical channels, not a reason to stay silent about being unwell in a medical report.