Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning.
My name is Laurie Ogilvie and I am senior vice-president of military family services.
Military family services and personnel support programs are operational divisions of Canadian Forces morale and welfare services.
Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services directly supports the Canadian Armed Forces' operational readiness by contributing to and strengthening the mental, social, familial, physical and financial well-being of Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans and their respective families.
Core public funding is received for the delivery of services and programs deemed necessary by the Canadian Armed Forces. As the Canadian Armed Forces’ service delivery partner, we are responsive to them as they remain the functional authority.
I am going to start today discussing the Soldier On program. It leverages the power of sport, recreation and creative activities to support an individual’s recovery, rehabilitation and reintegration. Established in 2007 and expanded in 2019 to align with the Canadian Armed Forces transition group, the Soldier On program supports military personnel and veterans who have sustained a physical and/or mental health illness or injury while serving, whether attributable to service or not.
The Soldier On program has two key lines of operations to achieve its mandate.
The first is communication and outreach, including increasing awareness and facilitating access to programs. The second is the local, regional, national and international camps and events. Activities range from hockey, skiing, golf and yoga to more creative programs such as cooking classes, guitar lessons and woodworking.
You might be familiar with the Invictus Games, which is the highest-profile sporting event for ill and injured personnel. Sports, recreation and creative activities help break down some of the barriers to recovery and, with the support of their peers, a common thread and a shared perseverance is established.
Switching now to family-centred programs and services, most are delivered by us, the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services, or through not-for-profit, provincially incorporated charitable organizations, namely military family resource centres.
Today programming is available in the areas of relocation preparedness, financial resilience, personal and familial health and community involvement. A few examples include emergency family care assistance, mental health counselling in person and virtually, family and intimate partner violence support, including an annual healthy relationships promotional campaign, a 24-7 crisis and referral line, emergency grants and loans, children and youth mental health counselling, educational counselling and non-clinical psychosocial supports, including the family version of road to mental readiness.
We also engage with national stakeholders to extend our capacity to offer services through a spousal employment network and virtual career fairs, telemedicine for relocating families, a pilot program to dispatch personal support workers to a family's home, the military family doctor network, a dedicated crisis text service with Kids Help Phone, and external partners and support through the Seamless Canada initiative.
In 2017, we introduced the veteran family program, which delivers services to medically releasing Canadian Armed Forces members, medically released veterans and their families. A veteran family program coordinator is available in every Canadian community to support the transition into post-service life. In 2022, we extended our telemedicine initiative to the veteran and family cohort.
Also in 2022, military family services formalized its support to transitioning families. Previously, a family liaison officer supported families of the ill and injured before and during the transition, and the veteran family program coordinator supported post-release. A family transition adviser has now been added to the transition centres to support those families of non-medically releasing members.
Beyond the services we provide, we work to ensure that members, veterans and their families have additional support accessing community and provincial systems of care to maintain their resilience in order to manage the transitions inherent to serving in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Thank you for your time, Mr. Chair.
I am pleased to answer the committee’s questions.