My name is Fred Doucette. To start with, I'm here as Fred Doucette, former soldier, not as a DND employee. As the questions go along, I guess we can segue into the work that I do.
I joined the army in 1968 and served until medically released in 2002 with PTSD. I did not meet the universality of service, in that I could no longer deploy outside Canada. By 1999 I had served on six overseas missions: Cypress in 1973, 1974, and again in 1986; 1995 with UNPROFOR; 1996 with IFOR; 1999 with SFOR; and a year as a military observer in Sarajevo, where I was wounded in July 1995.
I served on domestic operations such as the federal prison strikes in the 1970s, the 1976 Olympics, Oka, the Swissair Flight 111 recovery, and the ice storm, to mention a few.
I began my recovery when I was diagnosed with severe chronic PTSD in 2000. At that time, I requested that I not receive any therapy from a military practitioner. My reason was based on my visit with the base social worker to sign my referral to the OTSSC in Halifax.
I was a proud, well-trained infantry officer who had made a very difficult decision to admit to a mental illness. The base social worker began by asking me my symptoms. When I got down to the one that was concerned with my emotions, I said that they were all over the place. And his response as a trained professional was that I was just getting old.
If it weren't for the coffee table between me and him, I would have probably hit him. I told him to sign the--expletive--paper and left. And I never went back inside the base social work office again.
My therapy began in July 2000 with a civilian practitioner in Fredericton. By the time of my release in October of 2002, I was 100% healthier, and I've never looked back.
Since 2002 I've been employed as the operational stress injury social support coordinator for New Brunswick and P.E.I. I've dealt with approximately 500 soldiers and veterans and currently have about 120 active peers on my phone list.