Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to participate in the session.
As the chair mentioned, my name is Charlotte Stewart. I'm the director general responsible for service delivery and program management with Veterans Affairs Canada. With me this afternoon are Charlotte Bastien, our regional director general for the Quebec and Ontario region, and Raymond Lalonde, director general, operational stress injuries national network.
We are here today to discuss a topic that is at the heart of what we do at Veterans Affairs Canada in case management. More specifically, we are here to talk about strengthening case management.
I will discuss the national service delivery perspective for case management, Charlotte Bastien will provide the regional and front-line perspective, and Raymond Lalonde will be able to give us his views from the perspective of the operational stress injury network.
I'll begin by describing what the case-managed veteran population looks like. Veterans Affairs Canada's full client profile includes survivors, Canadian Forces veterans, war service veterans, and RCMP. The case-managed client profile is slightly different, mainly because survivors are not generally case-managed, but also because Canadian Forces veterans, who make up 34% of our total population, represent over 80% of our case-managed group. This statistic reinforces the demographic shift the department is experiencing. Furthermore, of the case-managed veterans we serve, the majority, 55%, are afflicted with a combination of mental and physical health problems; 30% have a diagnosed physical condition; and the remaining 50% have a diagnosed mental health condition. It is this complexity of cases that has driven the department's transformation agenda to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of these veterans and their families.
Case managers are the face of the department for many veterans. They're the cornerstone for the delivery of services and benefits. The transformation agenda has affected case managers' work in a positive way by providing them with the tools they need to succeed. For example, three workload intensity tools have been introduced by Veterans Affairs Canada. They include a risk tool designed to evaluate risk factors in veterans; a case need and complexity tool, which identifies levels of need, complexity, and intensity of cases; and a workload tool, which effectively measures workload effort associated with each case-managed veteran, ensuring that the department is able to distribute workload equitably amongst its employees.
These tools make it easier for our employees to objectively identify levels of risk, need, and complexity to ensure that veterans receive appropriate services in a timely way. The tools support the effective management of individual cases and overall caseloads. Most importantly, these tools provide a mechanism to monitor veterans' progress and identify when and if veterans are ready to transition out of the case management process. By using these tools, front-line staff and managers evaluate caseloads based on the number of active cases and on the level of complexity and intensity associated with each. The result is a well-balanced caseload for case managers across the country.
This suite of tools was rolled out nationally in February 2012, and our recent reviews indicate that employees are buying in. The vast majority of our case managers are using these tools effectively as they have been designed. Since the introduction and training of VAC staff on the use of the risk tools, over 80% are using these in accordance with the tools' guidelines. This information is encouraging, because it shows that there is an appetite for change and that the tools are useful, which is, of course, very important to us. This ensures as well that we know the workload is being distributed equitably between case managers and that we are able to identify those veterans who need priority attention. We will continue to support staff through the transformation process in an effort to improve these statistics even more.
The department is also developing a new national learning strategy for case managers, developing core competencies and supporting the further delegation of additional authority to front-line staff. These processes will be implemented in an environment that continues to adjust to the changing demographics of the veteran population, and as we move forward we will continue to maintain average caseloads of no more than 40 veteran clients per case manager.
As these factors change, we will adapt in order to maintain a consistently high level of service. We have district offices throughout the country, 24 integrated personnel support centres located on or near Canadian Forces bases and wings. VAC will ensure case managers are located in the areas of the country where they are needed the most and the department will continue to provide face-to-face services to meet the requirements of veterans. All of this will be done with the pillars of transformation in mind.
Strengthening case management supports two major themes in our transformation agenda: improving service delivery, and continuing to adapt to changing demographics of veterans by reorganizing the department for optimal service delivery to both veterans and employees as our consumers of internal services.
We are confident that our continued efforts will improve the services and benefits the department offers to veterans and their families. As their needs change, we will remain committed to providing the right people, in the right places, doing the right things at the right time.
Thank you again, Mr. Chair. I will now turn things over to my colleague, Charlotte Bastien.
