Good afternoon, honourable Chairman, members of the committee, and thank you very much for the opportunity to present to you today.
I'm Dr. Alice Aiken, director of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research. I'm also a university professor at Queen's University. Most importantly, however, I'm a veteran, having served 14 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, so what we're talking about is very near and dear to my heart.
I'm sure many of you know that I was the author of the original critical report of the new Veterans Charter just on the financial benefits as they pertain to seriously disabled veterans. I'm well aware that changes have been made since then, but I'm sure that's why I'm at your table.
I'd like the opportunity to tell you a little bit about our institute and what we do.
The Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research is an innovative organization that serves as a base for all Canadian stakeholders interested in military and veteran health research, and provides channels between the academic community, government organizations, industry, caring Canadians, and similar international organizations. Our mission is to enhance the lives of Canadian military personnel, veterans, and their families by mobilizing the national capacity for high-impact research.
The research done under the auspices of CIMVHR focuses on outcomes that will rapidly translate into treatments, programs, and policies. In addition to focusing on prevention treatment and rehabilitation, the research is able to rapidly respond to emerging needs for this group of heroes and to have relevance for the Canadian population as a whole. We also work diligently with all stakeholders to ensure that new programs and treatments that are cropping up for the treatment of veterans have the appropriate research built in so that we can ensure they're doing what they say they're doing.
CIMVHR is focused on ensuring that Canada's best researchers are engaged in these projects, which are fully coordinated with national and international agencies to ensure that they complement, not duplicate, existing research activities. We are continuously finding ways to collaborate. One example is through our annual national research forum. To date, we've hosted four such forums. We've engaged over 1,700 researchers and stakeholders, had over 400 scientific presentations, engaged 10 different countries, and we continue to grow.
The research presented has focused on significant aspects of mental health, operational and environmental health protection, rehabilitation, both physical and mental, combat casualty care, transition from military to civilian life, family health and well-being, and most importantly for this committee, health care policies and programs.
We've published three volumes of research and are in the process of starting a new journal of military, veteran, and family health. We expect to launch this online open access journal in January 2015, and anticipate that this will continue the unprecedented growth in military and veteran health research that we've built in Canada. We have a very comprehensive website. We're also on Facebook and Twitter, if any of you are tweeting right now.
In addition to this, and in order to ensure our sustainability, we're building a pan-Canadian graduate program in military and veteran health research. Through the Royal Military College and Queen's, we've offered a very successful webinar graduate course over the last two years. This coming September when we offer it for the third time, one of our partner universities will also offer a course focused on family health.
We've brokered donations of $400,000 from Wounded Warriors Canada so that we will have a new doctoral scholar in military and veteran health research, with a focus on mental health every year for the next 10 years. We have a standing offer from the Royal Canadian Legion for a master's scholarship. We continue to build the next generation of researchers in this very important area.
My own doctorate is in health policy, so I would ask that any discussions about revisions to the new Veterans Charter be focused and based on evidence. We're most certainly here to help with that.
Thank you.