Chronic multisymptom illness

Chronic multisymptom illness — DVA SoP factors

Every factor in the Repatriation Medical Authority Statement of Principles for Chronic multisymptom illness. DVA can only accept a claim for Chronic multisymptom illness if at least one of these factors is met and connected to your service. Reasonable Hypothesis (RH) applies to operational service; Balance of Probabilities (BoP) applies to peacetime service.

Source: Repatriation Medical Authority Statements of Principles as held by the Veterans Health Centre. SoPs are amended and replaced regularly; always confirm the current instrument at rma.gov.au before relying on it.

RH No. 3 of 20204 factors

Meaning of chronic multisymptom illness: For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, chronic multisymptom illness means a condition characterised by multiple somatic symptoms which has been diagnosed by a specialist physician or a psychiatrist and which meets the following criteria: A. There are one or more current symptoms from two of the following three categories: (i) fatigue; (ii) mood-cognition: feeling depressed, difficulty remembering or concentrating, feeling moody, feeling anxious, trouble finding words or difficulty sleeping; or (iii) musculoskeletal: joint pain, joint stiffness or muscle pain; and B. The collection of symptoms relied upon to make the diagnosis is distressing and results in significant disruption of social and occupational functioning; and C. The collection of symptoms relied upon to make the diagnosis must have persisted for at least six consecutive months.

Reasonable Hypothesis (RH) — Statement of Principles No. 3 of 2020

At least one of the following factors must as a minimum exist before it can be said that a reasonable hypothesis has been raised connecting chronic multisymptom illness or death from chronic multisymptom illness with the circumstances of a person's relevant service:

(1)
living or working in a hostile or life-threatening environment for a period of at least 28 days in the six months before the clinical onset of chronic multisymptom illness;
Note: hostile or life-threatening environment is defined in the Schedule 1 - Dictionary.
(2)
experiencing a category 1A stressor in the six months before the clinical onset of chronic multisymptom illness;
Note: category 1A stressor is defined in the Schedule 1 - Dictionary.
(3)
experiencing a category 1B stressor in the six months before the clinical onset of chronic multisymptom illness;
Note: category 1B stressor is defined in the Schedule 1 - Dictionary.
(4)
inability to obtain appropriate clinical management for chronic multisymptom illness;

Aggravation-only factors: the factors in subsection 9(4) apply only to material contribution to, or aggravation of, the condition where it was suffered or contracted before or during (but did not arise out of) the person’s relevant service.

Accepted — what is it worth?

A Statement of Principles decides one thing only: whether DVA accepts liability for chronic multisymptom illness. It says nothing about how much you are paid. Compensation is worked out separately, from impairment points under the GARP — so a condition can be accepted and still rate few points, or rate more than you expect once it is combined with everything else on your file.