It's SMSRC.
Evidence of meeting #58 for National Defence in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was services.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #58 for National Defence in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was services.
A recording is available from Parliament.
LGen Lise Bourgon
Merci.
They've changed the name. There's one more “s” now. We can ask them to provide an update on their MST supports.
NDP
Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Okay. That's perfect.
You had been talking about the Medavie Blue Cross services provided to members. Can you let me know what the timelines are for renewal for those benefits and policy agreements for the CAF?
One of the concerns I heard was about chiropractic services. There are a lot of requirements. Obviously, service members deal with a lot more. There have been requests for access to chiropractors, but that's not provided through Medavie, and they're worried about the agreements being renewed and what will be included in them.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
We'll have to take that question under advisement.
Ms. Mathyssen is very clever. She asks her questions with no time left. It's very clever.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
You're going to get answers, but you're not going to get them within the two and a half minutes.
We'll go to Ms. Kramp-Neuman.
Conservative
Shelby Kramp-Neuman Conservative Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON
Thank you.
What I'll do is follow up on the question that didn't quite get answered in the last session for my colleague. Could you possibly provide or could the CAF survey families to determine the rates of access to physical and mental services that we could include in draft recommendations? From our perspective, if we can't measure it, we can't manage it.
LGen Lise Bourgon
In the CAF and DND, there's a very robust survey program, and I will ask the question of the director general of military personnel research and analysis.
My gut feeling tells me it's already a question that they're asking about the caveat on access to child care and access to family mental health and medical care. I will ask that question, but I'm 90% certain that it is being done.
Conservative
Shelby Kramp-Neuman Conservative Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON
If, as you mentioned earlier, these are the number one reasons people are leaving or are not joining, then I think it's super important that we look into it and get the numbers to support the decisions moving forward.
To follow up on my last question earlier in the session, we were talking about civilian doctors, and doctors in general, for the CAF. Is there an opportunity for the Department of National Defence to help with foreign accreditation of new Canadians with regard to family doctors?
LGen Lise Bourgon
Can you repeat that question and potentially explain it a little more, please?
Conservative
Shelby Kramp-Neuman Conservative Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON
Certainly. My question is this: Do you see an opportunity for the Department of National Defence to help with foreign accreditation of new Canadians?
LGen Lise Bourgon
I'm just going to confirm that you're looking at the Department of National Defence to take a lead in the accreditation of the qualifications of new residents who come in with a medical or a health service background.
Conservative
MGen Marc Bilodeau
This is definitely outside of our mandate. There are national organizations that are responsible for that. The Canadian Medical Council is one of them, and obviously all the regulators in each of the provinces.
Conservative
Shelby Kramp-Neuman Conservative Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON
Okay. I'll move forward with regard to mental health.
The 2023-24 departmental plan acknowledged that the aim was to improve mental health support by reducing wait times for support and services. Could you speak to the current wait times and the central cause of them?
MGen Marc Bilodeau
There's a challenge currently in health care, not only in the military but also in the country overall, as you know. There's an increase in demand overall for health care, especially mental health services, that is challenging the system overall. There are just not enough mental health care providers in the country currently to meet the demand. Obviously that is impacting us as well, because our members are a sample of Canadian society, so that demand for health care has increased also.
That trend started, by the way, before the pandemic, and it was just exacerbated during the pandemic. I think there's a new set of stigmas that are not as present as before from a health care perspective, which is good. I think it's going to bring more people into care earlier, which probably will improve the overall outcome of all those people who are suffering with mental health issues, but this need is currently creating a lot of pressure on our systems.
We're obviously still trying to recruit as much as we can to have our piece of it, if you will, from the perspective of mental health care providers. We currently have 50 active hiring processes going on through our contractor, Calian, to bring in additional mental health professionals. It's not easy, because we're in competition, obviously, with our colleagues from the provinces, and we can't afford to steal everything from them either. We need to share in some ways.
What we're doing, although internally, is trying to re-look at our program and at the way we deliver mental health care to see if we can become more efficient, if we can “responsibilize” more patients and if we can stick to our patients less than we are currently. All of that is part of what we're doing.
There are lots of applications online now, for example, to do some mental health treatment, if you will. We need to capitalize on that. I think that would save resources for us and allow us to treat more people if we do that. However, it's an ongoing challenge that we're working on actively.
Conservative
Shelby Kramp-Neuman Conservative Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON
In speaking with former CAF members, how do you see them transitioning to other supports following their time with CAF to ensure long-term support for veterans?
MGen Marc Bilodeau
There is other support, but I can speak to the medical aspect of it.
As I said, I have a responsibility to make sure that all our members who have a medical issue at release are transferred safely to a health care team post-release. We're doing that through our nurse case managers, who are the main pivot to facilitate that transition. Then we need to liaise with the provinces and the territories as well as Veterans Affairs.
That's a three-partner dance, basically, that needs to happen at the time of release. It 's a challenge now because of a lack of access to health care in the civilian sector. This is why we have that good mechanism that allows us to potentially keep members a bit longer to make sure the bridging is done properly and safely.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Okay, we're going to have to leave the questioning there.
I have Ms. O'Connell as the next....
Will it be you?
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Thank you. I'm going to continue the conversation about mental health.
You mentioned earlier that if somebody is a veteran and their mental health condition comes out later, as is often the case with PTSD, which is something a lot of veterans deal with, there is an issue in terms of receiving the services or in terms of that transition.
I am wondering if it is mandatory for members of the CAF to receive mental health support. Is it mandatory to see a psychologist, social worker, psychiatrist, addiction counsellor? Is there somebody who is automatically checking in on members, periodically or regularly, to make sure that people are not being missed, and what is the process for that in general?
MGen Marc Bilodeau
There are lots of different touchpoints with our members throughout their careers that allow us basically to identify when they are suffering from mental health issues. That starts at recruiting. The first day that they enter a recruiting centre, we're asking them if they have active mental health issues.
Then it goes on through our periodic health assessments that we are doing on a regular cyclical basis, based on their age and gender. That goes on through the pre-deployment screening that we do before they go on any mission and the post-deployment screening that we do when they come back from a mission. That goes on through any touchpoint that we have with our members for reasons other than a mental health issue. That's an opportunity we have to basically ask if they are suffering in any way and to make sure they are offered the support they need, based on their disclosed condition.