Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, members of the committee and colleagues. Thank you for inviting me here today.
My name's Greg Kyllo, and I'm the national director of program innovation with the Canadian Mental Health Association, at the national office.
We're celebrating 100 years in 2018, and CMHA, as you may not be aware—we're often confused with CAMH—is the largest community-based mental health non-profit in Canada. Even within the sector, it's sometimes overlooked that CMHA has an active presence in more than 330 communities, with almost 5,000 staff impacting the lives of more than 1.2 million Canadians per year. CMHA is the only national community mental health organization that is inclusive of all diagnoses, all professions, and all demographics.
Thank you for your attention to this very important issue. The mental health of jurors needs to be protected, and measures need to be in place to ensure that duties of being a juror and contribution to justice in our country are not at the detriment of jurors' well-being. Today I'd like to focus on key areas that we believe will speak to the importance of protecting the mental health of jury members, and to how these services may be best positioned within the justice system.
We at CMHA applaud the federal government's commitment to addressing the mental health of jurors. The impact jury duty can have on participating citizens needs to be understood more thoroughly, as is the case of the serious mental health issue that many people associate with first responders or soldiers engaged in combat operations. We know that occupational stress injuries, or OSIs, and post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, can develop for myriad reasons, and these reasons are often very subjective.
The negative effect of a difficult trial can be felt by anyone participating in the legal proceeding, and we're hopeful that over time we can ensure that all parties are protected from the harmful impact of OSIs and PTSD. We encourage making mental supports available to all individuals involved in our justice system. CMHA National encourages the justice system to collaborate with community mental health agencies and to find effective solutions for occupational stress injury and post-traumatic stress disorder amongst the participants in all courts in Canada.
CMHA branches across the country are prepared to assist local courts in the rollout of any programming designed to address OSIs and PTSD within their communities. As has been articulated, and as you are aware, occupational stress injury is any persistent psychological difficulty resulting from operational duties, such as law enforcement, combat, or any other service-related duties. PTSD is a type of OSI that presents after an individual has experienced a particularly harmful event, known as trauma. While OSIs and PTSD are often associated with veterans and soldiers engaged in combat operations, they can be developed through other circumstances, such as jury duty. Jury members, lawyers, survivors of violence and crime, police officers, paramedics, Children's Aid workers, nurses, doctors, and humanitarian workers are examples of individuals who are exposed to primary or secondary trauma in the course of their work.
PTSD is one of the most common types of OSI and can present as depression, anxiety, substance misuse, and other mental health symptoms that persist and disrupt daily life. PTSD has a range of symptoms, such as flashbacks, nightmares, the development of phobias, depression, irritability, anger, and sometimes self-harm and suicide.
Trauma is a very subjective experience, which means that certain events may trigger the development of PTSD in some individuals, but not in others. Trauma can have physical, mental, and emotional components. One can also experience secondary trauma, or secondary traumatic stress, which is the experience when a person witnesses or hears about another's trauma and hasn't necessarily experienced it first-hand themselves.
Listening to the lived experience of those who have served as jurors is a critical step in guiding action and provisions to identify what is required to protect and preserve the mental health of those who serve in our Canadian justice system.
I'd like to acknowledge and thank those with lived experience of mental illness and involvement within our justice system who have contributed to this discussion. We have learned that there are certain types of trials that pose more of a risk to the juror, and the nature of the trial must be considered. In the case of murder trials, the compounding effects of listening to details of crime, viewing evidence such as autopsy photos, and passing judgment on an offender's guilt have left jury members emotionally distressed.
Seeking help is often left to the individual and is voluntary. In the case of jury duty, standard practices of care must be embedded within the jury duty responsibilities and should be considered mandatory safety precautions. We recommend that the Department of Justice establish an enhanced protocol on the psychological protection of jury members. Jury members should be informed that participating in such a safety protocol before and after jury duty is expected in order to ensure the safety and well-being of jurors.
Should these services be mandatory? Wearing safety protective gear is mandatory in some workplaces. In the case of jury duty, when jurors are exposed to highly traumatic material, this produces an extremely unsafe environment. Therefore, we recommend considering mandatory measures be established to safeguard against harm in certain trials.
It should not be left up to the individual jury member to apply to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board for reimbursement for cost of treatment, lost wages, and other expenses following the trauma and psychological injury of serving as a juror. Programs including jury debriefing and post-trial counselling should be provided free and should be easily accessible. That accessibility is really the key to ensuring it is available to anyone serving jury duty.
The federal government should consider following provincial justice departments such as that in Ontario, where jurors are able to call a designated phone number 24-7 to get help whenever they need it, and in Manitoba, where having a jury debriefing program is a best practice and has been implemented successfully.
These programs would benefit anyone who has served in a criminal or civil trial or an inquest. Jurors will be provided with information on the program at the beginning of the trial and then again as it finishes or as needed throughout.
In conclusion, I want to recognize that although not have been many studies or significant landmark trials on the psychological impact to jury members have been done to date, we do have evidence of the lasting effect of occupational stress injuries and the importance of minimizing exposure to harm. If individuals have been exposed to stress or significant traumatic material, we do have evidence-based tools to support the person to manage this exposure and address their emotional and psychological needs.
I urge the Canadian government not to wait until evidence mounts that certain practices such as debriefing and post-trial counselling in the context of jury duty are beneficial but to act now and make these evidence-based practices readily available, accessible, and compensated.
Thank you again for inviting me here today.