“I endured multiple traumatizing situations while I was deployed to Afghanistan. To this day, most of my comrades know that I was released for mental health reasons and most probably assume it's combat-related, which isn't true. It's 100% mental health issues stemming from prolonged military sexual misconduct. I could no longer be strong. So many years of unacknowledged trauma came flooding to the surface. I tried for almost seven years to get back to how I functioned before, where I could suppress everything and 'soldier on'. That led to years of depression, suicidal ideations, and multiple suicide attempts. No amount of therapy helped, and I eventually ended up with a medical release which I didn't have the strength to fight anymore.”
Currently, PCVRS has mandatory training, none of which speaks to the unique experiences of women veterans. We believe this is a glaring error that they should rectify. Although understanding women veterans' experiences can be learned over time, PCVRS's failure to prioritize women puts them at risk for sanctuary trauma.
Women veterans often report coming forward with their concerns, only to be met by non-culturally competent clinicians. We recognize that the new PCVRS rehab program is vocationally focused, not-trauma focused. Still, we do not want to risk retraumatizing women in a system that is supposed to focus on healing and new beginnings.
When clinicians are recruited who are not culturally competent and who do not understand the complexities of CAF releases, those clinicians are unable to treat women veterans holistically. We would like to bring forward this call for culturally competent clinicians from this spectrum of women and those in the Canadian military colleges, CAF members and veterans.
We will now present our five key recommendations.
We must engage women veterans, clinicians, case managers and other stakeholders when developing and modifying programs for women, using community-based participatory research methods. These methods will promote women veterans' knowledge mobilization in hopes of reducing gender blindness and honouring women's needs and experiences.
All clinicians should be required to have training in two to three trauma-focused modalities and have three years of experience with CAF or veterans. They should be required to participate in training focused on women veterans' experiences and have information regarding the LGBTQ+ community and the sexual misconduct lawsuits.
Clinicians should use progress monitoring measures to evaluate clinician-client relationships, such as the PCOMS.
There should be more shared resources and transparency in research with women veterans and CAF, and education and resource packages on VAC programs should be provided to clinicians.
Finally, we are recommending that CAF allow students of psychology and other accredited programs identified under the Psychotherapy Act to have the opportunity to participate in internships on Canadian Armed Forces bases. This would provide excellent training opportunities for trauma-informed and culturally competent care, increase resources on bases and help develop clinicians who can provide quality care to veterans and civilians upon graduation.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to your questions.