Veterans Affairs Committee on June 12th, 2012

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Wladyslaw Lizon, Conservative, Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON]

Professor Sareen, we've talked a lot about the treatment of mental illness. In your experience, in your studies, anything we try to treat is better if we have an ability to stop it or prevent it. Should something be added to military training? You mentioned predeployment preparation. Can something else be done to protect soldiers who engage in a military operation, not only from physical injuries, through equipment and innovations, but from emotional and psychological injuries?

I would like you to start, and if others join in, I would appreciate it.

[Dr. Jitender Sareen]

This is in a paper our group presented. At this time, I think there is some evidence that people who were exposed to physical and sexual abuse when they were young were at increased risk of mental health problems. Childhood abuse plus deployment and combat exposure had an additive effect. That's probably the strongest predeployment risk factor.

At this time, there's a lot of interest in psycho-educational interventions. We've got physical training. Can we do some mental health training? The forces' members can probably answer what's happening. My understanding is there isn't a lot of evidence for that, but trying to prevent illness has always been one of the core pieces.

At this time, I don't think we have a pie-in-the-sky...that this is the perfect thing to do. There's been interest in whether you had a history of a mental health problem...if we should try to minimize people being deployed. That's also been a very controversial area, because if you look at serious mental illness, like schizophrenia or a psychotic illness, it makes some sense, but distress, depression, anxiety.... If you exclude everybody, then you won't have a military either.

I don't think at this point we have evidence, but the forum and the partnerships could allow for intervention studies and those kinds of things, and our study is trying to do that as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Sorry. We're over time. Did you want Colonel Bernier to respond?

[Col Jean-Robert Bernier]

Everything that is known or that may potentially assist in prevention is being done—screening, for example. Right from recruitment, we screen out anybody with a mental health condition. Throughout the course of their career, people get periodic health assessments that include mental health screening questions. Predeployment, there's psychosocial and mental health screening. Before deployment and afterwards, there's an extensive “road to mental readiness” program, to try to enhance resilience based on some evidence in sports psychology, with special operations in the U.S. and other sources of data, and then post-deployment as well.

There's also the Canadian Forces Expert Panel on Suicide Prevention, which was held a couple of years ago, which included civilian and military experts from Canada and from other allies around the world. It reviewed all the possible preventive efforts that the literature suggests might...or anything that has any evidence in favour of it. Even in the absence of evidence, those that might potentially have an effect...they have been implemented, and the suicide expert panel found that.

Separately, the Rand Corporation in the United States did a similar evaluation, and everything they found, as far as a good, solid mental health program to try to minimize mental health conditions, was already in place in the Canadian Forces.

[The Chair, Conservative, Greg Kerr]

Thank you very much.

At this point, I want to thank our witnesses very much for their contribution. It's very much appreciated.

As our study goes on, it's obvious we're involved in a pretty major undertaking.

We have some committee business to take care of, so I'm going to suspend and ask folks to wish our witnesses well as they leave, please.

[Proceedings continue in camera]