Evidence of meeting #26 for Veterans Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employment.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Cheryl Flohr  Acting Deputy Director, Pre-Discharge and Retired Pay Programs, Veterans Benefits Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Margarita Cocker  Deputy Director, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service, Veterans Benefits Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Michael Fisher  Program Analyst, Readjustment Counseling Service, Vet Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Joel Scholten  Associate Chief of Staff, Rehabilitation Services, Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Susan McCrea  Executive Assistant, Intergovernmental Affairs, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

4:40 p.m.

Deputy Director, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service, Veterans Benefits Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Margarita Cocker

The benefits records are still in the process of migrating to the paperless environment. We still have paper records in the benefits we have.

4:40 p.m.

Conservative

Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON

Okay, that's good.

If you're looking for some inexpensive typewriters, we may have some to sell you, if you'd like to buy any.

I have another question regarding the PTSD app you have for both the iPhone and the Droid. I'm just wondering how good the take-up is on that and what benefits you're seeing with it. Just tell us a little more about that app.

4:40 p.m.

Associate Chief of Staff, Rehabilitation Services, Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Dr. Joel Scholten

I got my information from my mental health counterparts. I do know that it was rolled out about a year ago. It's been hugely successful. It's been uploaded many times, and they have found it to be very effective and helpful. But I'm sorry, I don't have any more exact data for you on that.

4:40 p.m.

Conservative

Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON

Somebody in our committee touched on funerals and burial. I can't remember exactly who.

Could you tell us a little bit more about funerals and burial and whether it's a means-tested process? If so, what's the net worth level? And how much do you provide for a funeral for a veteran?

4:40 p.m.

Acting Deputy Director, Pre-Discharge and Retired Pay Programs, Veterans Benefits Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Cheryl Flohr

What I was referring to earlier were the benefits that are potentially available to the family or person bearing last expenses for a deceased veteran. It sounds as if you're referring to what may be provided by the National Cemetery Administration. Is that correct? Do you mean actually providing burial at a national cemetery?

4:40 p.m.

Conservative

Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON

I'm not sure who would provide it in the U.S., but it sounds as if you're on the right track.

4:40 p.m.

Acting Deputy Director, Pre-Discharge and Retired Pay Programs, Veterans Benefits Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Cheryl Flohr

I'm by no means an expert on matters that involve the National Cemetery Administration, which is the third arm of the VA. To the best of my knowledge, a veteran need only have honourable service to qualify for burial in a national cemetery, provided there is space available. I'm not aware of any means testing to be eligible for burial in a national cemetery.

4:40 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Mr. Lizon, for five minutes.

4:40 p.m.

Conservative

Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing this afternoon.

The first question I have will go to Dr. Scholten.

I would like to ask you about the TBI screening. You're showing a number here of about 579,000 screened for possible mild TBI, and then you show the other numbers. As a result, 45,000, which amounts to less than 7.8% of all those screened, are confirmed and diagnosed with mild TBI.

Can you maybe explain why there's a process like this? It seems that maybe there's something wrong in the pre-screening when you have such large numbers at the very beginning and you end up with fewer than 8% of all the people screened actually being diagnosed with TBI.

4:45 p.m.

Associate Chief of Staff, Rehabilitation Services, Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Dr. Joel Scholten

Certainly.

At this point the updated first number is over 600,000, but every veteran who has served in Iraq or Afghanistan or who has left the Department of Defense since September 11, 2001, and who accesses the VA for care is screened. We screen everyone who comes in the door. The four-question screen was meant to cast a wide net. The purpose is to identify veterans who may need assistance. The screen is very sensitive but not very specific, so there are false positives, individuals who are identified but who may not have had a traumatic brain injury.

The challenge with TBI is that none of the symptoms is individually specific for traumatic brain injury. The symptoms are typically memory problems, headaches, dizziness, or confusion, which can occur in a variety of different illnesses or impairments. The screen was really meant to identify those individuals who are symptomatic, to have them see a specialist to receive an appropriate diagnosis, and then to develop an appropriate treatment plan. So although only 7.8% of the entire population receives a diagnosis, the screen is identifying those individuals who are symptomatic and who need care.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON

If I understand correctly, you are screening a large number of people because you don't want to miss anybody who may potentially have an injury.

4:45 p.m.

Associate Chief of Staff, Rehabilitation Services, Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Dr. Joel Scholten

That is correct.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON

Do you have a tool to follow up or to monitor those who are screened and who eventually develop symptoms down the road, a year or two years later, and need help?

4:45 p.m.

Associate Chief of Staff, Rehabilitation Services, Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Dr. Joel Scholten

We don't, only because those symptoms would not be due to traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injury symptoms are present immediately. They may develop later on and be temporarily related to the traumatic brain injury, but they are more likely to be due to an intervening mental health condition or other issues, such as chronic pain, insomnia, substance abuse, or medication side effects. So we don't necessarily have a way to identify those individuals who may have had a head injury in the past but who weren't symptomatic, but it's not likely that symptoms that develop years later are due to a mild traumatic brain injury.

From severe traumatic brain injury, that is a possibility. As I mentioned earlier, we do have a traumatic brain injury registry that is fed data on all those individuals who have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, so we do potentially have the ability to go back and contact them.

4:45 p.m.

Conservative

Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON

Thank you very much.

The next question is on a little different topic. Are you aware of homeless U.S. veterans?

I don't know who would answer that question.

4:45 p.m.

Deputy Director, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service, Veterans Benefits Administration, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Margarita Cocker

I think we all probably work on the homeless veterans issue, so I'll jump in there and address what I know.

The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs has stated that it's his goal to eliminate all veteran homelessness. I do not have the statistics, but I do know that there is a population of homeless veterans, and we have multitudes of methods by which we tackle that. We do things called stand downs, in which we take mobile units into the communities where there are homeless individuals and provide services on the spot, right there, to veterans who are homeless. We provide toiletries. We have a facility at which they get a medical evaluation and a dental evaluation, a drug rehabilitation evaluation, an evaluation for possible service-connected disabilities, and mental health treatment. That's just one example of some of the initiatives we have in place.

I'll defer to anybody else who wants to jump in with other initiatives we have. It's VA-wide. Every business line that provides any kind of veterans benefit, including consulting, is involved in eliminating veterans homelessness.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON

The reason I ask that question—

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr

I'm sorry, Mr. Lizon, the time is up for questioning, but if any of the other witnesses wants to add to the answer, that's quite acceptable.

Does anybody else want to provide information?

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

Wladyslaw Lizon Conservative Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

4:50 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Greg Kerr

You're all good. Thank you very much.

That ends round one. Just for our witnesses, we go into a second final round, which is a four-minute round.

I do want to tell committee members that Mr. Stoffer has indicated he has a notice of motion. He's going to use his last question time for that, and if everyone is in agreement, we'll finish the questions up first and let his time slot go to the end to deal with the motion. That way it won't be disrupting any questions and answers.

We're going to start the second round with Monsieur Genest for four minutes, please.

4:50 p.m.

NDP

Réjean Genest NDP Shefford, QC

Good afternoon. Thank you very much. We appreciate our neighbouring country giving us a helping hand by explaining what it does for its veterans.

The United States of America occupies a very large territory, like Canada for that matter, but you have an advantage, you have a lot more inhabitants. My question is for Mr. Fisher.

You know that nowadays everything is automated, we have communications systems, we have the Internet and phone services of all kinds. We are talking about a new Android telephone, and so forth. I also see that you have mobile service centres for your veterans, which for me is a bit the opposite of that. It personalizes your services a little more.

Do you think you will go on using this approach for a long time to get closer to your veterans?

4:50 p.m.

Program Analyst, Readjustment Counseling Service, Vet Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Michael Fisher

Absolutely. When we define outreach, we define it as both a face-to-face connection as well as print media and things along those lines.

There's a slide in there that has a bunch of cows walking in front of one of our mobile Vet Centers. I love this slide because it's at a rodeo in Colorado. Even with all the technology that we have on this vehicle, all the satellite systems, the phones, etc., it's the driver, who is a retired sergeant major from the marine corps, who makes all the difference in this case. I think this individual knows every marine corps veteran in the states of Wyoming and Colorado, and they know him. They feel comfortable talking to him.

It really goes back to that veteran-to-veteran connection that we will continue with, as well as using other resources, like web media and other media sources.

4:50 p.m.

NDP

Réjean Genest NDP Shefford, QC

Do you think it would be a good idea to slowly introduce this service in a sparsely populated country like Canada, where military bases are often very remote, to connect with veterans that settle far away from military bases?

4:50 p.m.

Program Analyst, Readjustment Counseling Service, Vet Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Michael Fisher

Absolutely. The veteran-to-veteran connection provides that instant credibility. It's just that familiar language, the familiar experiences. It gets them really comfortable with what services are available, so they can start taking advantage of them. I agree, yes, it would.

4:50 p.m.

NDP

Réjean Genest NDP Shefford, QC

Do you also use these mobile centres to do some advertising aimed at veterans at events, to encourage them to use these services?