National Defence committee  Thank you so much for having me here. My name is Tim Laidler. I'm the executive director of the Veterans Transition Network. It's a non-profit organization started by the University of British Columbia, which is based on a 15-year research project called the veterans transition p

National Defence committee  The primary source has been the Royal Canadian Legion. They've funded this project for the last 15 years in B.C. as a research project. Within the last year, we've received support from the True Patriot Love Foundation, Wounded Warriors, and the Dominion Command of the Royal Cana

National Defence committee  There is zero cost to the veteran. We pay for all their travel, all their accommodations, and everything to take the program.

National Defence committee  Currently, we are doing it on a needs basis. We have focused on the east coast because we've seen that there's a higher proportion of veterans out there. From here, we're building it out to where we get the most traction. Often they'll be one of our graduates who'll go back to th

National Defence committee  Yes. Some of our graduates are actually OSISS operators. It is a good source for our recruitment.

National Defence committee  We've been going to the smaller communities, especially in areas where there's a large reservist population and perhaps not a major regular force base presence. That being said, we still do see a need in those areas, too. Then, ideally, we'll have programs running to support all

National Defence committee  I don't think we've come up with any sort of data to show a best time for it. I took it earlier on. It was the first exposure I had to anything therapeutic, and I found that extremely helpful. We do find that we're catching people further upstream. We know if they're able to make

National Defence committee  The biggest one is the peer group work. Often what will happen if they come out and unsuccessfully transition is they'll end up on their own, isolated, trying to withdraw to the wilderness and not be around busy sounds and places like cities. This is hugely difficult when they're

National Defence committee  Yes, I'm aware of it. We present, every year, our research findings at CIMVHR, the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research.

National Defence committee  It's really the key indicator for us, if they can get back into employment. The real difference, though, is not just a job, but a fulfilling job. We don't think the major problem facing veterans is unemployment; it's actually underemployment. I can speak first-hand to this afte

National Defence committee  When it comes to trauma, I see it like jumping out of an airplane: if you don't have a parachute and you land on the ground, you're going to get broken legs and all sorts of messed up things if you survive. That's what trauma is like. There's very little you can do to stop yourse

National Defence committee  I think it's a great point. To give you a bit of an update, and not too pre-emptively, we have been in very good conversations with DND to date. We've talked to people from mental health. They realize that our program doesn't fit within the health services bracket, that we are

National Defence committee  That 400 number is back-ended. For the first 12 years or so, we were only running this as a research project. It was very small scale. We've been ramping this up. We want to get it to 150 military and veteran personnel per year in 2015. Currently we are a non-profit organization

National Defence committee  There are some programs that I can talk about, but I'm not fully qualified to speak on them completely. I can relate as well that my father served his whole career in the police force and made that transition himself recently. I'd say in the current service model they have a lo

National Defence committee  Our objective is 150 veterans per year on an ongoing basis after 2015.