National Defence Committee on June 5th, 2013

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Given that I think I saw 32, or something like that, across the country, does each individual MFRC respond to the local conditions? For instance, I would expect in Petawawa the MFRC would be quite different from the one in Esquimalt, just because of the different branches and the different.... I assume you would be dealing with a lot more of the post-combat OSIs, etc., at Petawawa than you would at Esquimalt.

Can you maybe describe how your organization ensures that there is a baseline level of service across the country but encourages specific chapters to deal with specific local concerns?

[Col Russell Mann]

The family resource centres have been set up that way, to recognize that we nationally fund those portions of programming that we want to remain consistent across the country, and indeed around the world. We allow the non-profits to raise money from other funders to provide for unique and local conditions and to engage in agreements with base and wing commanders to meet local community needs.

We mandate, again in the way we fund, that every three years they must do a community needs assessment to have a much better understanding of the local needs in their area and to be able to balance those local needs against the national programming that we support.

[Mark Strahl, Conservative, Chilliwack—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Thank you.

You said you read the testimony from the last meeting. We were dealing with a couple of parents. Obviously, the children they were concerned about were soldiers—age of majority, willing members of the Canadian Forces. How do you deal with adult parents—I guess is a way to put it—who are perhaps not as much a part of the traditional model that you've talked about with the spouses? Have you expanded to include parents, or is that kind of in its infancy?

[Col Russell Mann]

That's a very good question.

We have a harder time reaching parents than we do perhaps some family members who may be living under the same roof as military members. I have to acknowledge that right up front.

Our family resource centres and the team I have, however, are engaged in active outreach to include parents in deployment support, in the pre-briefings, and in the reintegration briefings. We have teams that travel all over this great country to go out to communities to connect with parents and help them understand, particularly the deployment separation and reunion process, and that's where we've heard from family parent members that their greatest sense of stress occurs.

Post deployment you're in a whole new world of ill and injured members and how those parents remain connected. There I can only tell you we try to honour the member's wishes when they identify their primary next of kin, their secondary next of kin, and who they want to be kept in the loop as they move through rehabilitation, readaptation, and recovery.

I would have to say I honour the members' wishes to the extent possible, recognizing that parents want information.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jack Harris]

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Colonel. The time has expired.

Ms. Moore, please.

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Colonel Mann, I have two questions for you. The first has to do with funding.

In the special report published by the Ombudsman for the Canadian Forces titled “Fortitude Under Fatigue: Assessing the Delivery of Care for Operational Stress Injuries that Canadian Forces Members Need and Deserve”, the following is stated in paragraph 171:

Many Military Family Resource Centres, vital cogs in supporting families, experienced small or no budget increases during the period of 2007-2012 despite large increases in demand, and several indicated that they were experiencing funding strain. As outlined, the re-established Directorate of Quality of Life appears to be severely undermanned with just 10 positions, of which only four are baseline funded as of mid-2012. And the Directorate of Military Family Support was required in recent fiscal years to “implement a low cost/no cost approach to programming” due to financial pressures.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

My second question is about spouses. When I served, some of my colleagues would unfortunately return from a mission to an empty home and a letter from their spouse—ex-spouse, in that case. That's a tough situation to come back to.

I would like to know what resources you provide to military spouses before missions to help them face the difficulties that will arise during missions and once their spouse returns. I also want to know how you provide those services to spouses of reservists who don't live close to a military family resource centre.

When people come back from a mission and have to go through a divorce, on top of everything else, the situation is really not ideal for their mental health. I would you like to tell me a bit more about this.

[Col Russell Mann]

Mr. Chair, with your permission, I will answer this question.

Ms. Moore, if I have understood your first question correctly, you noted that, between 2007 and 2012, the national funding—or the portion we are responsible for—increased slightly. However, I think the funding increased considerably—by 25%—over those five years. From 2007 to 2012, our national budget for services provided to military families actually increased by 25%.

Where are we now? The annual funding for Military Family Resource Centres, or MFRCs, across Canada, the United States and Europe exceeds $27 million. That's the current situation.

Regarding the situation spouses find themselves in when military members return from missions, and the resources we provide before, during and after missions, we do have a deployment preparation service. That is provided jointly by health services and Military Family Resource Centres. We have another program that is now recognized as a good practice. I am talking about R2MR—a program for deployment preparation. A series of information sessions are organized for families. A military member attends an information session following a mission and before returning to the country. At the same time, the family is also provided with a session under professional guidance.

Over the 30-day period after a return from a mission, we follow up with the military member and their family. After that period, it is up to the family to decide whether they want additional assistance. We do not provide follow-ups after that period. During the mission, a number of commanders and organizations—such as MFRCs—call families, so that they can feel connected to the military community and benefit from a range of resources if they need them. We always show families respect. It is up to them to decide whether or not they want to use those resources.

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

What about the spouses of reservists who don't live close to a centre?

[Col Russell Mann]

Mr. Chair, we have many reservists.

Over the past 12 months, I have changed the conditions and the description of the population served by MFRCs. My goal was to make reservists' families feel that they are part of the program. A number of reservists' families said that they felt excluded. But that is not the case. The program is intended for all members and their families faced with daily challenges related to military service. They have access to our services for any relevant needs. It's as simple as that.

When it comes to reservists, we are facing a double failure or a double challenge. As you have noted, madam, reservist units don't always have a military family resource centre nearby. That's why we have an outreach program. Many MFRCs send people out to tour a region or a province in order to get in touch with those units and provide special programs to the members and their families. I cannot say that is the case in all the units, but those are the services and advice we provide.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Dreeshen, you have the floor.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Colonel Mann, for being here today.

A couple of weeks ago, I had an opportunity to go to a Veterans Voices event in Sylvan Lake. I had a chance to listen to Master Corporal Paul Franklin, who you are no doubt aware of. Of course, he had a chance to explain to those veterans who were there, and also to the public, some of the types of situations that he and his comrades found themselves in. He went through the process, the few days before the event that had taken some lives, and how the team was working together.

When he came back, he went through the rehabilitation that was required. He talked about the issues that he and others had with regard to different types of addictions that they were afraid would affect them. He talked about their concerns about rehabilitation, of course, and also about the community involvement and this major adjustment that he had to get over.

I just wonder if you can look at some of these and tell us a little bit about the kinds of stories that people such as Master Corporal Franklin have been able to use, to go back to those who have been injured in the more recent past, in order to try to see how they're able to adjust a little more easily.

[Col Russell Mann]

Mr. Chair, the member has spoken to an area that, again, really resonates with programs offered by the director of casualty support management, and I don't know if Colonel Blais has already given you testimony on that. I feel ill-prepared to speak to that question, unless there's some part of it that I need to have restated.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

That's fine, if you're not comfortable answering.

We've had Colonel Blais here, as we've had Master Corporal Paul Franklin.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to go into another area. When we're talking about families, the military has great training for its individuals. But whether they're injured or there are situations where they may have left the forces, it's trying to get the educational equivalencies for the trades and being able to move into the workforce.

Is that something your organization tries to do as well, in order to help these families?

[Col Russell Mann]

Again, this is a really good question.

Mr. Chair, I have to be reluctant in discussing what we do for the member, but I can tell you that we are trying to take that vocational rehab approach to the families as well. It is very clear that with the ill and injured, and with transitions, family income becomes doubly important. One of the key programs we offer through family resource centres is education support and employment support, whether it's academic upgrading, employment placement, resumé writing, or how to present for interviews. It's how to achieve those equivalences at the spousal level.

We have a wonderful program, from the Quinte area, in fact, where we do a prior learning assessment with spouses so they can market the strengths they build through a military lifestyle and gain better employment at a better rate of pay. That can have a positive impact on an ill and injured family at a time when they need additional financial resources.

Unfortunately, I can't speak as strongly to direct contact with the member. I can tell you that if members come through the door seeking that service, and a family resource centre has a space available, they will certainly help that member in the same way they help a spouse.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Quickly, in the short time I have remaining, can you expand somewhat about the community support you have for the resource centres you're involved with?

[Col Russell Mann]

Community support is very, very big. Every family resource centre tries to reach out. Every base commander and wing commander tries to reach out to the community in which they find themselves working and living. It is a network of care that is largely based on provincial supports, especially when we're talking now about health care, child care, and mental health supports. Frankly, those are some of the areas that families tell me have the most pressing needs.

The only way to get that connection is to go to clinics in the community, in Petawawa, for example, at the Centennial health centre, and build a relationship. It's partnering with those who aren't necessarily direct military providers but who support our families in the communities where we live.

That's at least a partial answer to your question.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer, AB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you. The time has expired.

I need one clarification from you, Colonel Mann.

With Military Family Services, how much of an extended family can you go to? As you've already talked about, I know that sometimes you're restricted by the restrictions put in place by the military member themselves. We do hear from them.

I know you addressed the issue with parents. What about divorced spouses, and families that are separated? Children may not always be with the member in question, yet that child and that ex-spouse may need some support.

[Col Russell Mann]

It's a great question, Mr. Chair.

We define “a population served”, and we constantly look for ways to be inclusive in that definition. The first and foremost is that you are a direct family member of a serving member; we do not distinguish between regular or reserve. The condition of receiving service is that your challenge or your issue is created by the condition of the military lifestyle.

On top of that, we were able to successfully expand the population served to provide, in perpetuity, support to families of the fallen. That's under Shoulder to Shoulder, a program of care to families of the fallen, so that they can feel connected to our community and continue to come and seek, even a simple social connection or social support. It might be to have more important follow-on support in the community and a referral. We would welcome other family members. We do direct support to parents because we consider them as part of the family, and they're included in the population served.

I hesitate...because we have two departments, National Defence and Veterans Affairs. I'll be heading to Charlottetown next week to discuss some of the ways we can work better together to serve families of serving and former members. But I'm not in a position at this point to talk about how we could extend beyond what I've just described.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you. The time has expired.

I know we started late and we went over a little bit, but I want to thank you, Colonel Mann, for spending time with us today and for the great work you're doing with military families and providing the services they so desperately need.

With that, we're going to suspend and ask our next witness to come to the table.

[Col Russell Mann]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity and for what you do.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

We'll call this meeting back to order. Joining us for the next hour is Corporal Glen Kirkland.

Corporal Kirkland, I'm going to allow you to make your opening comments. You have 10 minutes.

[John McKay, Liberal, Scarborough—Guildwood, ON]

I have a point of order.