Evidence of meeting #54 for National Defence in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was therapy.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
I'm getting a sense of the scope here. You have psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers....
Now, are the social workers clinical social workers?
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
These social workers have been doing counselling, in other words.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
What else? You have psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers....
Col Scott McLeod
Those are just the mental health care providers within the mental health care program. We also have our primary care physicians, nurses, medical technicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners, who are a part of our primary health care system as well.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
These are separate from the regular primary service clinics.
I hear that occupational therapists have something to offer. Do you have any of them?
Col Scott McLeod
We do not have any occupational therapists working for us directly. We have physiotherapists, and we contract out occupational therapy as we require it, through Blue Cross. If we feel that there is a requirement for it, we can always go to a civilian occupational therapy clinic. It's done on a referral basis.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
It's a referral to an occupational therapy clinic. They're not part of your overall service or your advising or anything like that.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Okay. Because I have learned something about occupational therapy recently by talking to some academics who are in the field. One of the things they assist in is planning for recovery for people who may have mental health challenges. Obviously, there's the psychological part of it, and there may be some of the things you're doing.
In your case, Ms. Hull, you talked about doing the therapy you do because you like horses and you've found that this helps with the personal challenges. Have you formalized this in a way such that people could say to you, Ms. Hull, that they would like to purchase your services as a clinical therapist in equine therapy? Is it set up so that you charge a fee for service or is it something less formal than that?
Clinical Social Worker, As an Individual
I have a private practice, so anyone in the civilian population can come to me.
The majority of my caseload is Blue Cross related. It's the Canadian Forces contracting me to treat soldiers. I don't treat soldiers using horses. Using the horses is a part-time practice for me, and I don't do it directly with soldiers.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
You do contract work for the Canadian Forces in your social work counselling practice.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Okay.
This other aspect is something that is not developed into....
Clinical Social Worker, As an Individual
It's not permitted with soldiers at this point because it's not evidence based.
NDP
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
If I were living nearby and thought this was a good thing for someone who was a friend or relative of mine, I could come to you and get somebody into a program that's defined.