Evidence of meeting #78 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 care.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Padre and Program Director, Regimental Chaplain, 32 Combat Regiment, Toronto, Wounded Warriors Canada
They're still in the forces, yes.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and through you to our witnesses, thank you both for appearing today.
Padre, congratulations on your imminent promotion to brigade padre. That will be good to see.
This began in 2006, essentially, and started off fairly modestly, really. It started by getting TVs and some of the niceties into the hospital rooms for the troops, because it was fairly basic accommodation at the time when they were being treated. You grew from there, so can you describe what that growth curve has been since 2006, and how you've migrated to all these other programs?
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
As you indicated, Landstuhl, Germany, was the start, with a single soldier being severely injured. Padre Ralph and Captain Johnston went to visit, and over an evening came up with the idea of the Wounded Warriors fund.
We have evolved. Our rapid expansion has happened probably in the last year or year and a half, where we've seen a ramp-up of third-party fundraising events, a very large number of them producing substantial dollar amounts. In turn, we've seen the requests for support growing. One thing about growing in size is that you get noticed. When you get noticed, there are more requests. We manage those requests mostly on a volunteer basis, with the clinical help and support from clinicians.
We have taken on the thought pattern that our role in this will be to be front and centre. We want to get the brand out in front of the public—public awareness is a big factor in mental health—and raise as much money as we can. We will then use that money with various programs, to help out.
I can tell you that our financial growth has been substantial in the last two years. We're not the biggest charity in Canada—certainly not. We don't have the same type of corporate funding that some charities have. We are truly a grassroots organization, but it is growing dramatically.
Conservative
Padre and Program Director, Regimental Chaplain, 32 Combat Regiment, Toronto, Wounded Warriors Canada
From a personal point of view, as a padre in the reserves, I've been called on a number of times to do notifications overseas, because I'm the guy who's long in the tooth and who's been around the longest. They look to me when such things have to be done.
In the last few years, I've done a couple of notifications of soldiers who have returned home but had some issues they needed to deal with. I had to go to families and knock on those doors. I would much rather do this and have programs in place and see people get better than visit families, knock on their doors, and tell them that their son or daughter is not coming home. That's why we do this.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
There are those other programs. Do you share clientele? Do they go between the various groups? How does that work out? You have, probably, more expertise with reservists than most groups do.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
That's a fair question. It's not really a competitive space. We are, I guess, in a sense competing with other charities, whether they be charities related to this issue or even the Cancer Society. The Canadian public has only so many dollars to spend on charitable endeavours.
In a sense, our charity is closer to the soldier. We deal directly with soldiers. I could speak personally. I spent Saturday morning with our Hand Up program, helping two young soldiers who were both PTSD. Through the help of a television personality, they learned a trade, and they are now starting their own company. They came to us for some assistance to start that company. Those are fun things to do.
These are good people. We like to get right down in the weeds, if you will, and help them out. I think that's what makes us a little bit different from some others, perhaps.
Conservative
Ted Opitz Conservative Etobicoke Centre, ON
I'm going to shift to your work with animals—dogs and horses. We've had groups come in here, and they've talked about the effectiveness of that. I'm sure the equine program has similar benefits.
Could you tell us whether you believe the CF and National Defence should be taking on those programs officially? What would your recommendations be? How effective are you finding them right now?
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
The dog program in particular has been an interesting one. We've been working with it perhaps a little bit longer than the horse program. The feedback has overall been very positive. Dogs are amazing animals and they provide confidence to an individual, along with their treatment. One thing I want to point out about these programs is that they are not a replacement for any treatment the soldier is receiving. That's an absolute necessity for us to point out. We never get involved in a program that's going to replace the good clinical programs they're receiving.
The comments have been quite favourable, though. Perhaps Padre Phil might be able to add a couple of comments to that.
Padre and Program Director, Regimental Chaplain, 32 Combat Regiment, Toronto, Wounded Warriors Canada
I know, in particular, in talking to Colonel Jetly, who is head of mental health in the CF, we've talked about animal programs and how they feel about them. From a clinical point of view it's hard to get all the clinical data. It's a lot of testimonial and personal stories, and those kinds of things.
One thing we know is that it doesn't hurt and it may help. For some people it gets them out of the house and gives them some confidence. The equine program is a really interesting one. We just started working with Can Praxis. I know that Veterans Affairs Canada is very much looking to work with Can Praxis and to do a study on its effectiveness. I know that's really close to coming to fruition. We've been really happy. We basically got their first two pilot projects off the ground so that they could see how it ran and have a look at it.
The great thing about the Can Praxis program is that it involves the family. It's not just the injured soldier. It's his partner and his children, and they come to the program together. It's great.
Conservative
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank you both for the work that you do. Certainly, Wounded Warriors is a very impressive organization. In some respects you are an organization that goes where the government can't go and leads into fields of therapy that the government can't go into because there is no statistical or evidence-based proof that some of this stuff works.
On Mr. Opitz's reference to the dog and horse program, when you start to fund something like that do you have any intention in the back of your mind of developing, if you will, evidence that this kind of program actually does work, that you can move beyond the anecdotal to the evidence so that the government can actually see its way clear to moving into the program, and if you will, taking over from you?
I think you are leading-edge. Do you do it on an intentional basis?
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
Thank you for that, and thank you for your comment.
One of the reasons we involve clinicians is to assess the program at the front end and also at the back end. In particular, Dr. Alice Aiken, at Queen's University, and her clinical support team are taking a more active role in looking at some of these programs to make sure that, first, we're in good standing to be offering funds to support them—to be very candid with you, it's a bit of a protection for us—but also to look at the results and the evidence so that we can go beyond the anecdotal evidence.
It's fair to say that animals such as horses and dogs have a great history in helping and supporting humans for many situations. I think we're on fairly good ground to say that animals of that sort would be helpful, but still it is good to do that.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I like the way the transition occurred out in B.C. Some doctor, I've forgotten his name...on to the government. You were one of the first in the door.
Do you have any programs with respect to soldiers in conflict with the law?
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
I'm sorry, the question was whether we have any programs assisting soldiers with legal issues. We can't speak to it yet, but we've been contacted by an organization, by a firm that wishes to engage us to assist in the creation of a fund that might be able to support soldiers in that regard.
It's not our mandate to get into the defence mechanisms of soldiers in legal issues.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
I was watching “60 Minutes” and it was about American soldiers. In Texas they actually set up a special court. I don't know that we actually have as significant a problem here.
My third question has to do with the Veterans Charter. You referenced it in the last part of your comments. What are your observations with respect to the Veterans Charter?
Padre and Program Director, Regimental Chaplain, 32 Combat Regiment, Toronto, Wounded Warriors Canada
The main thing is that we have feedback on that. It will be no secret to the members of the committee that there is a lot of discussion and some angst. I think there are a lot of very good things in the charter. For instance, there is the definition of a “veteran”, and bringing that up to date was the most basic thing. That was a very good thing.
There's a lot of angst around a lump sum versus a pension. Basically, the issue is you give a 22-year-old—
Padre and Program Director, Regimental Chaplain, 32 Combat Regiment, Toronto, Wounded Warriors Canada
One-third of $1 million sounds like a lot of a money, but if he has all these ongoing medical or mental issues, what does he do in three years? How does this go, and is it really a healthy way of dealing with it?
I know that's an issue the government and the opposition is going to discuss, but it's an issue we thought we'd bring forward as one that we hear often. It's not the essential part of our mandate, our mandate is to help soldiers, but this is something that we find is brought up to us on occasion.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
As a point to add to that, in the case I spoke of earlier with regard to the two soldiers on the weekend, we always ask the question: where are your other financial resources, and what have you done with them?
It was interesting to get the response from this one particular individual. He simply said, when I got it, it was too soon.
Board Vice-Chair and Chief Financial Officer, Wounded Warriors Canada
In other words, he was not treated. He was in the middle of treatment, received funding, and did as most, or as a lot of young 25-year-old people do. We won't discuss the specifics but I think you can figure that out.
