Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, everyone.
On behalf of our Chief Executive Officer, Peter Coleridge, it is my great pleasure to be here today representing the Canadian Mental Health Association.
The CMHA was founded in 1918. We were then known as the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Our main goal at the time was to provide care and treatment for people suffering from mental disorders across Canada.
For the purposes of your study, I think it's important to note that one of the first relationships CMHA had in Canada was with the Department of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment. Our goal was to help the department—the predecessor to Veterans Affairs Canada—help Canadian soldiers returning from the First World War, who suffered from a range of different neuropsychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, or, as it was called then, shell shock.
Today we're proud to continue this collaboration, notably with Veterans Affairs Canada. Last year we signed a memorandum of understanding with Veterans Affairs Canada to do a number of things that we hope will help provide better supports and services for veterans in the communities we operate in.
The Canadian Mental Health Association is a community-based organization. We're located in 120 offices across Canada. We serve thousands of communities. We see roughly half a million people every single year.
We accomplish much of what we do through volunteers. We have about 10,000 volunteers and employees across the country. We provide what I would call community-based supports, services, and programs, which run the gamut from prevention programs to mental health promotion programs, interventions, and a number of other services and programs. I'd be happy to talk to you about them during the question and answer period.
We believe that any service that's provided, whether to Canadians or to certainly military personnel in the Canadian Armed Forces, must be proactive. It must be relative to the unique needs that exist within the community at the time. It must also be integrated as best as possible with health and social services. We believe that doing this will help us achieve the outcomes we're all looking for—for Canadians and for our armed forces.
In this regard, the CMHA is very encouraged by what we have seen in the Surgeon General's mental health strategy. We feel that not only does it offer supports and services for soldiers and their families—I'll talk a bit about support for families a little later—but they've also organized the services in a very deliberate and programmatic way. I think that is extremely important for this committee to know.
We believe, in fact, that many features that exist within the Surgeon General's mental health strategy can serve as a model for what ultimately we would like to see across Canada, which is a comprehensive, universally accessible mental health program for all of Canadian society.
I don't have to tell this committee about the human costs related to combat. It's very clear. I'm sure you equally are aware of the burden associated with neuropsychiatric disorders and mental illness. I won't go into any detail on that.
What we've recognized, in the work the Canadian Forces has done for soldiers over the last two decades, is that we've seen and participated in, in different ways, the co-development and the co-design of really what is a very comprehensive program for soldiers. In this regard, we remain very buoyed by what we see in the strategy.
Now, we don't have any special knowledge with regard to how the Surgeon General's mental health strategy is being implemented on the front line. However, what we do see, based on the strategies and the priorities that have been established, is an evidence-based approach to addressing a person as a whole person. We see an approach that is multi-disciplinary, an approach that is fairly comprehensive, and we see a service that is focused not only on interventions but also on health promotion, prevention, and a number of different supports.
As well, and it's important to underline this, we see research and evaluation. We remain impressed by the way in which the strategy has been developed, because it does provide for ongoing research as well as evaluation.
From our perspective, in Canada we are facing a chronic underfunding of community mental health services. This has existed not only in Canada but across the world. However, we do see rays of light and hope as they relate to the role the federal government has been playing in not only bringing attention to mental health issues but also to conducting research that we know is going to make a difference in people's lives.
For example, about five years ago, one of our former CEOs, Taylor Alexander, served with DND and the Veterans Affairs mental health advisory committee. We understand that the RCMP was also involved in that work. Ultimately, we believe that this type of highly collaborative approach to supporting the design, the development, the validation, and the implementation of the mental health strategy is crucial in order to ensure that we are serving our armed forces in the most appropriate way. We strongly recommend to this committee that this type of collaboration between different parts of the community, including the medical community, continue.
In recent years, we've also seen the federal government invest around $11 million to hire mental health personnel within the Canadian Forces. We also recognize that this is the right thing to do in Canada. We have, unfortunately, chronic underfunding and non-availability of human resource planning and mental health human resources, or people who have the appropriate training in order to provide the type of safe care or trauma-informed care that is needed to intervene appropriately with people who may be suffering from a serious mental illness or a serious mental health problem. In that regard, we think that investing in both human resources as well as training is extremely important to ensure that people receive the type of appropriate care they need to prevent the onset of more serious complications associated with their mental illness or disorder, as well as to intervene in an appropriate way at the earliest time.
We would encourage the federal government to continue playing a leadership role in providing adequate training and resources to all providers.
We believe that, similar to services under medicare for physical health, Canadians and those under the jurisdiction of the federal government should have a guaranteed right to mental health services that are universal, comprehensive, accessible, affordable, and publicly administered.
We believe that particular populations' direct health care is the responsibility of public agencies, such as the armed forces, veterans and justice services, and should be guaranteed in the same way as services that we all now enjoy and receive under medicare. Services should be proactive and relative to the unique needs of a population.
We believe this is extremely well-reflected in the Surgeon General's mental health strategy, and we still remain impressed today, after years of consultation and review, that the level of integration and interdisciplinary approach to mental health problems and the mainstreaming of mental health promotion across all levels of the Canadian Forces is being accomplished. This includes, of course, surveys, research, development and publication of operational guidance for commanding officers, periodic studies, as well as comparative research with the United States and the general population. All of these facets that we see within that strategy are what we would call a true program of care that is focused on reaching better health outcomes.
As you consider your work in your study, we would ask you to make sure that you adopt or at least consider a “no wrong door” approach to receiving care. In looking through the mental health strategy that the Surgeon General published, we note there may be a tendency to look at the medical community and primary care exclusively. We would think that there's a role, certainly, for community mental health services to support the work the Canadian Forces is doing very well. There are a number of family supports that are provided within the community, and, quite frankly, we think there is something lacking in terms of community mental health within the strategy at this point.
After the next presentation, I will be pleased to answer your questions. Thank you.