Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
I want to begin by thanking you for your invitation to appear again today and to bring additional insight about services for military families.
In particular, I want to thank you for your interest in regard to military families in the work you do as members of the House of Commons Standing Committee on National Defence.
As the Director of Military Family Services, a division of the larger Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services which falls under Chief Military Personnel, I am responsible for ensuring that the Canadian military family community is well supported and that military families specifically are able to lead positive, nurturing family lives comparable to other Canadian families.
On November 5, 2013, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces' Ombudsman released a report entitled On the Home front: Assessing the Well-Being of Canada's Military Families in the New Millennium. The report noted that three aspects of the military life style—recurring geographic relocations, relentless separation and elevated levels of risk—make military families appreciably different from other Canadian families.
Today, 80% of military families live off base, as opposed to that same number living on base several years ago. This brings a host of new realities for families as they attempt to integrate themselves into new communities every few years, from posting to posting. Where families might have once relied on a close-knit community on base, they now rely on their civilian communities far more.
The mobility inherent to the military lifestyle also prevents many Canadian military families from accessing primary health care resources and related support services. l'm happy to tell you that as a result of two years of behind-the-scenes work with provincial-territorial governments, we were successful in having them waive the 90-day wait period for provincial health insurance for military families.
Further, military families are also largely made up of dual income earners, which has a significant impact for families when relocating. Employment continuity, career progression, credential transferability between provinces, and income stability are issues that arise for military spouses and their families.
However, what is omnipresent for us at this time is also the fact that we have military personnel currently facing physical and mental health stresses and injuries following operations, including the past mission in Afghanistan. While mental illness indirectly affects all Canadians at sometime through a family member, friend or colleague, the stresses inherent within the military lifestyle can in many cases weigh particularly heavily on military families.
With spouses, parent, children and other family members who are often the ones to experience, first hand, signs of the mental illness in their loved ones, we need to make sure that the families standing with them are resilient and strong and that the Military Family Services Program is responsive and agile in meeting their needs.
That said, however, only when we consider families as the first and most important partners in the work we do can we truly achieve success in supporting families. The Department of National Defence and the Canadian armed forces are deeply committed to supporting families. Through military family services, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian armed forces provide support and resources to families either in person, at military family resource centres, by phone through the family information line, and online at www.familyforce.ca.
One of the most significant milestones achieved this year by the military family services team was the expansion of the family information line service to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in order to always serve military families. Building on a legacy that was founded in 1992, known as the mission information line, the family information line's expansion of confidential, bilingual services 24/7, by trained counsellors, is already making a real difference for families who can now access services any time day or night.
Questions range from how to find information about policies and procedures, which services are available in the communities they live in, to how to resolve a family crisis, to name a few examples.
The Canadian Forces member assistance program is also available 24 hours a day for members and their families, with referral to a counsellor within 24 hours.
Support to families following the illness, injury, or death of a Canadian armed forces member has evolved over the past several years, and the difficult experiences of families have influenced our approach in reaching out to families of the ill, injured, and fallen. The Canadian armed forces acknowledges that families' needs may continue to grow over time and that no two families will experience their recovery or grief in the same way.
In 2011 we put in place family liaison officers who are trained social workers, and embedded them into each integrated personnel support centre to be an integral part of the caregiving team. Family liaison officers are employed by military family resource centres and remain an important way of offering mental health support to families who need it. A total of 33 family liaison officers provide counselling and support to families, to assist them in dealing with a range of issues including their loved one's operational stress injury, transition difficulties, anxiety, and depression. From April 1, 2012, to March 31, 2013, some 1,680 families were served by family liaison officers. This approach is absolutely essential and integrated into the integrated personnel support centres' approach.
Along with access to family liaison officers, families can also access a multitude of resources and programs at their local military family resource centres, in their communities, their base chaplains, the family information line, the Canadian Forces member assistance program, and the public service health care plan. Ensuring consistency of services for families, regardless of where they might be posted, is of critical importance to us. In fact, we are currently holding the fourth annual training session this week for all family liaison officers, mental health providers, and other caring professionals, to enhance the availability and quality of mental health services at military family resource centres in direct support of military families.
At military family services, our commitment is to increase our communications efforts to ensure that families are well informed of the services available to them so they never have to wonder where they should go to get the support they need. At military family services, we have expanded our communications approach from relying solely on military family resource centres as our primary means of communicating directly with families, to more recently communicating with them through social media, advertising, and partnering with publications like Canadian Military Family Magazine.
The Canadian Armed Forces remain committed to ensuring that our men and women in uniform and their families receive the care, services and support they need, because they should fully benefit from the same lifestyle options as other Canadian families. Research has proven that supporting military families insures an operationally-ready force, which is to the benefit of all Canadian citizens.
Honourable members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen, I could go on for much longer, but I realize that my time is up. I would be pleased to respond to any questions or comments you may have for me at this point. Once again, I want to thank you for the time you have allocated to me today, and I look forward to seeing the outcomes of the study.