Committed to the well-being of Australian veterans with professional services
Leveraging years of specialized experience in veteran mental health
Delivering unbiased psychiatric reports for fair outcomes
Ensuring every Australian veteran can access our services globally
MBBS.FRANZCP
Founder, Consultant Psychiatrist, Clinical Director
Dr Charana Perera is a highly experienced Consultant Psychiatrist and the Founder of March Ahead, a specialist service providing independent psychiatric assessments for veterans. With a strong commitment to clinical excellence and impartiality, he leads a team dedicated to delivering objective, evidence-based psychiatric evaluations for Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) claims and medico-legal reporting. Dr Perera has five years of specialist experience in general adult psychiatry, with expertise in trauma-related disorders, veterans’ mental health, and medico-legal psychiatry. His professional background includes perinatal and women’s mental health, reflecting a broad and nuanced understanding of psychiatric conditions across diverse populations. Having served in the Royal Australian Army, Dr Perera possesses first-hand insight into the psychological challenges faced by veterans. His military experience enables him to approach psychiatric assessments with a deep understanding of service-related mental health conditions, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, adjustment disorders, and neuropsychiatric conditions linked to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This background allows him to assess complex cases with both clinical accuracy and contextual awareness, ensuring a fair and balanced evaluation for medico-legal purposes. At March Ahead, Dr Perera ensures that all psychiatric assessments are conducted with the highest professional and ethical standards, adhering to the guidelines set by AHPRA, RANZCP, and DVA requirements. His role involves conducting independent psychiatric evaluations for veterans seeking compensation through DVA claims, ensuring that assessments are thorough, objective, and clinically robust. As the lead psychiatrist, he oversees a team of specialist psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, maintaining a rigorous and impartial assessment process to uphold the integrity of each evaluation. In addition to his clinical work, Dr Perera remains actively engaged in veteran mental health research, advocating for best-practice approaches in psychiatric evaluations to enhance the quality and accuracy of assessments in the medico-legal field. Dr Perera is actively involved in veteran-oriented research and collaborates with Gallipoli Medical Research to advance the understanding of mental health conditions affecting veterans. His research focuses on the long-term psychological impact of service-related trauma, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), and the effectiveness of treatment approaches tailored for veterans. His contributions aim to bridge the gap between clinical practice, research, and policy development to enhance mental health outcomes for former service members. He is also engaged in education, professional development, and industry collaboration, hosting peer discussions, medico-legal training, and research initiatives to enhance the field of military psychiatry and medico-legal assessments. Beyond his professional work, Dr Perera is dedicated to promoting veteran wellbeing through research, community engagement, and sponsorship initiatives. He is currently developing a veteran mental health retreat, focusing on holistic rehabilitation, social reintegration, and structured psychiatric care for veterans, particularly female veterans. As the driving force behind March Ahead, Dr Perera remains committed to ensuring that veterans receive thorough, independent, and clinically robust psychiatric assessments, reinforcing the service’s reputation for professional integrity and excellence in the medico-legal field.
Executive manager, Veteran Integration and relationships
Lance enlisted in the Army as a medical assistant in 1988. Having risen to the rank of warrant officer class two, he became a commissioned officer in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps and held a range of appointments at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels. Lance has been deployed to Somalia, Papua New Guinea (Tsunami response team), East Timor (1999 and 2001), Bougainville and Iraq (2007 and 2018). He joined DVA in May 2013 as the Darwin Manager – Rehabilitation and Compensation and was acting Deputy Commissioner Northern Territory from July 2015 to July 2017. In the latter role, Lance recommenced remote outreach engagement, greatly assisting isolated and vulnerable veterans. He also substantially increased DVA’s profile and client numbers throughout the Northern Territory and Kimberley region. In July 2018, Lance was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for his outstanding commitment to the Northern Territory community. In 2016, Lance planned and conducted an ADF transition project to examine how to reduce stress on members discharging from the ADF and increase awareness of their DVA entitlements. As a result of this work, Lance transferred (and relocated to Brisbane) to the Defence Engagement team and later Operational Performance Improvement to be a key engagement leader in national and strategic projects including the Special Forces Project and Transition Health Assessment. In April 2018, Lance returned to the Army to deploy to IRAQ as the Health Advisor to the Australian Task Group and used this period to learn from current veterans on operations the knowledge gaps. From this Lance was able to plan and design a National Engagement and Education Model which is the current model used by DVA today. Throughout 2019, Lance personally briefed approx. 20000 ADF members. In March 2020, Lance ceased with DVA and commenced providing a Veteran Coaching model (at no cost) to Australian Veterans globally to achieve superior results. This coaching model has been provided to many of the most senior ADF officers/Warrant Officers, Senior Executive Service, and highly decorated veterans. Lance is often engaged to provide Subject Expertise on Veteran policy to commissions, forums and emerging policy and is an extremely trusted individual. Lance uses the quote “Knowledge Dispels Fear” (Lance was a Parachute Jump master in 3 RAR) and to positively reinforce a “can do” feeling with the veterans he meets. Lance is married to Danielle (25-year Army veteran) with 2 adult daughters – Paramedic and Royal Australian Air Force Officer.