Veterans Affairs Committee on June 9th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome today to the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are studying service delivery to veterans.

From the Department of National Defence we have Brigadier-General Nicolas Eldaoud, chief of staff, military personnel command; Marie-France Langlois, director, casualty support management, JPSU; Bruce Phillips, family peer support coordinator; and Vanessa Pok Shin, family peer support coordinator.

From the Department of Veterans Affairs we have Elizabeth Douglas, director general, service delivery and program management; Robert Cormier, area director, field operations; and Anne-Marie Pellerin, director, case management and support services.

We will start with 10 minutes from each group. The we will go to questioning. We will ask the group to direct their questions toward a specific organization and witness.

We will start with the Department of National Defence.

[Brigadier-General Nicolas Eldaoud, Chief of Staff, Military Personnel Command, Department of National Defence]

Good morning, Mr. Chair, and thank you, members of the committee.

I am Brigadier-General Nicolas Eldaoud and I am the chief of staff of military personnel command. I am very happy to be here this morning with my team.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear today and speak to you about the joint personnel support unit, or JPSU, and the operational stress injury social support process.

My role is to assist the commander of military personnel command, Lieutenant-General Christine Whitecross, in Canadian Armed Forces military personnel management, from recruitment through training, education, benefits, health care, and spiritual services to career management, honours, and history.

The commander of Military Personnel Command is also responsible for providing support and services and delivering programs to ill and injured military personnel and their families, as well as supporting the families of deceased military personnel. These services are delivered by the joint personnel support unit, or JPSU, which consists of eight regional headquarters and 24 integrated personal support centres (IPSCs) and seven satellites across the country, with a headquarters here in Ottawa.

Joining me today are the real experts. First is Navy Captain Marie-France Langlois. She is the director of casualty support management as well as the commanding officer of the JPSU.

Also with me are Ms. Vanessa Pok Shin, OSISS family peer support coordinator here in the national capital region, and Mr. Bruce Phillips, OSISS peer support coordinator.

We serve a number of distinct groups, each of which usually includes regular and reserve force personnel and their families.

There are four groups in all.

The first group are those who are ill or injured and who are expected to be able to return to full duty participate in our return-to-duty program. This program assists military personnel throughout recuperation and recovery and their return to their military duty, which could be a gradual return consistent with the prescription for return to duty that has been issued by a medical officer.

The second group are those who are ill or injured to the extent that they are not expected to be fit for full military duty are supported through transition services. Approximately 10,000 regular and reserve members transition out of the Canadian Armed Forces each year. Of that number, about 16% are released for medical reasons, and we support them through that transition to civilian life.

The third group is made up of those who are neither ill nor injured. But they are entitled to transition services, recognizing the challenges of adjusting from the military lifestyle to civilian life. Transition includes those who are releasing or retiring, and are either seeking civilian employment or looking forward to a well-planned, successful retirement.

Finally, we also support and assist the families of military personnel who are deceased, ensuring that a designated assistant is assigned to assist these families with the administrative support and assistance they require.

The joint personnel support unit, the JPSU, and its subunits, the integrated personnel support centres or IPSCs, were envisioned to be a one-stop shop where those who are ill or injured would receive advice, support, and assistance, not only from the military staff who deliver programs and oversee personnel posted to the IPSCs but from other partners.

Chief among these partners is Veterans Affairs Canada, VAC. VAC staff are co-located with CAF personnel in the IPSCs, and VAC is a key partner in the transition assistance that is provided to releasing and transitioning CAF personnel. VAC and CAF are intertwined in many aspects of service delivery. As an example, if you look at the VAC website, you will see that it invites military personnel and veterans to come to the IPSCs for information and services.

The IPSCs deliver the following services: return-to-duty coordination; advocacy services; mobility assistance; adapted physical fitness programs for individuals; the Soldier On program, which you may have heard of before; vocational rehabilitation; peer support, including operational stress injury social support, or OSSIS, and the Helping Our Peers by Providing Empathy program, or HOPE; support in accessing CAF, SISIP, and Veterans Affairs compensation and benefits; transition services for those who are released; civilian employment facilitation, including priority hiring within the public service; and finally, administrative support to families of the fallen.

The operational stress injuries social support, or OSISS, program that I just mentioned is a good example of a joint Veterans Affairs Canada/Canadian Armed Forces program. Jointly funded and operated, it provides valued peer support to members, veterans and families.

Founded in 2001, the OSISS program was established to complete the clinical care provided by Canadian Forces mental health professionals. A group of military members and veterans who had served in theatres of operation recognized the benefits of sharing their experiences and set up a peer-based support network.

From those roots, OSISS has now developed into a well-established program, managed in partnership by the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada. Every member of the network brings to it first-hand experience and practical knowledge of what it is like to struggle with an operational stress injury or to live with someone who has one.

As serious as an operational stress injury may be for affected Canadian forces personnel are veterans, there are also repercussions for their families. Through the OSISS program, peer support is also available to members of the families of those suffering from operational stress injuries. Members of the immediate family can invest considerable effort in trying to understand the injury, being supportive during recovery and maintaining family stability.

Over time, these demands can become major stressors on family members who try to adapt to the long-term effects of the injury. Because of these stressors, it is important that family members also seek help and support so that they can safeguard their own well-being, that of their children and the injured person.

OSISS is bolstered by trained volunteers who have previously benefited from the program and who choose to volunteer to support others. Being able to assist others can be a significant part of the recovery process, and many of our volunteers are quite active in providing that support. They are a key component of the program's success.

We are actively working with Veterans Affairs Canada on improving services offered by our organizations to veterans. As an example, the CAF and VAC are working jointly on a national career transition and employment strategy that integrates information on employment, financial planning and investing, and government programs offered to veterans. There are also other joint task force working groups between CAF and VAC that are currently ongoing. All of them aim to ensure the seamless transition of veterans to civilian life.

This strategy takes a whole-of-government approach and anticipates expanding its focus to include other government agencies, such as Employment and Social Development Canada, Service Canada, the Public Service Commission, and others, to leverage existing programs and resources that will support transitioning members and veterans.

Thank you again for the opportunity to appear, Mr. Chair. I would be pleased to respond to the committee's questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you. Next we will call upon Mr. Phillips. We'll give you a few minutes, if you want.

[Bruce Phillips, Peer Support Coordinator, Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS), National Capital Region, Department of National Defence]

My name is Bruce Phillips. Thank you for having me here today.

I will give you a brief background on Vanessa and me.

I'm a 28-year veteran of the Canadian Forces. I have spent 17 years in the Patricias—that is the PPCLI, if you're not familiar with it—and then I did an occupational transfer to LCIS, or Land Communication and Information Systems, as a technician. I've spent time in Calgary, Wainwright, Kingston, and Petawawa. I had tours in Cyprus, Croatia, and Bosnia, and I was also posted in Germany for a time, where I was born.

My job has three components. I work one side of that, the peer network, and Vanessa works the family side. The third component, as was mentioned by the brigadier-general, is the volunteer component.

Outside of that, I'm not sure if there is any more to add.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you. Now we'll call upon the Department of Veterans Affairs for 10 minutes.

[Elizabeth Douglas, Director General, Service Delivery and Program Management, Department of Veterans Affairs]

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this session.

My name is Elizabeth Douglas, and I am the director general of service delivery and program management at Veterans Affairs Canada.

Today I am joined by my colleagues Anne-Marie Pellerin, director of case management and support services, and Robert Cormier, the area director of field operations from Montreal. We are pleased and happy to be here to answer any questions on the study regarding service delivery.

The care and support of veterans, Canadian Armed Forces members, and their families is Veterans Affairs Canada's highest priority.

VAC undertakes studies and research regarding veterans and veterans' issues. The Life After Service Study of 2013 found that there is no so-called average veteran. In fact, nearly 27% of released Canadian Armed Forces members reported a difficult adjustment. Another 17% reported that their transition was neither easy nor difficult.

Not all members who medically release need the same level of transition assistance, and many who release for other reasons do need significant transition support. This makes the development of VAC's policies, programs, and service delivery to support members, veterans, and their families in transition to civilian life of greatest importance to Veterans Affairs Canada.

Evidence from the life after service study highlights that a successful military-to-civilian transition is particularly dependent on factors in seven key domains of well-being. These domains are employment; finances; health; social integration, both family and community; housing; life skills; and culture, which includes identity.

The transition period is an opportunity for Veterans Affairs Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces to assist veterans in all of these seven areas as they move into civilian life.

To do so, VAC, in partnership with the Canadian Armed Forces, has more than 100 staff working side by side in 24 integrated personnel support centres, known as IPSCs, across Canada. The purpose of this partnership is to provide a coordinated approach to care and support for Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans, and their families in the transition from military to civilian life.

The IPSCs provide access to available benefits, programs, and family services from both departments, allowing veterans, families, and members to focus on recovery as they prepare for the next stage of their lives.

Additionally, VAC transition interviews are available to all releasing Canadian Armed Forces members and their families. The transition interview is a screening process used by VAC to assist releasing members and their families in identifying potential risks and/or barriers to successful re-establishment.

During this interview, VAC staff will identify any potential risks or barriers; determine the level of support/intervention required; provide a collaborative approach to identify necessary benefits and services; work to establish a relationship of trust and confidence; gain a greater understanding of the member's transition needs; empower members and their families to become active participants in this transition process; provide information about or access to the full range of Veterans Affairs Canada's benefits and services; and refer members, veterans, and families to the appropriate resources as required.

Enhanced transition services is another joint initiative by VAC and the Canadian Armed Forces, put in place in response to the June 2014 report of this committee. Veterans Affairs Canada is now engaging earlier with medically releasing Canadian Armed Forces members and their families. This was implemented nationally in September 2015, with the goal of ensuring the best possible outcomes during this transition from military to civilian life.

Early intervention is critical in a successful transition process. It is imperative that VAC become involved with medically releasing members during their pre-release stage of transition. Through early engagement with medically releasing members, VAC is committed to building stronger relationships with medically releasing members prior to release; strengthening joint case management activities between the Canadian Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada; assigning of a Veterans Affairs Canada case manager or veteran service agent before release, based on the member's need; assisting members with completion of VAC program applications; rendering New Veterans Charter program eligibility decisions pre-release, where possible, so that services and benefits are available immediately after release; assisting members with registration and navigation of My VAC Account; providing members with a copy of My VAC Book; and providing information on how employment in the federal public service can be sought and found.

Veterans Affairs Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces are working together to develop joint case plans that will address barriers, ensure timely access to available programs and services, and provide an overall coordinated approach to case management activities. This ensures a continuum of services following release and for as long as those services are required.

An expanded post-release follow-up process was implemented in October 2015. Up to that point, VAC was following up with veterans who were assessed at a level of risk designated as moderate to high. With this new initiative, post-release follow-up is expanded to include medically released veterans designated as being at minimal risk. This provides an additional opportunity for VAC to follow up with medically released veterans to ensure that their transition needs are being met and to address any concerns or issues that this minimal-risk group may have.

On October 1, 2015, VAC and the CAF launched a pilot project to provide medically released veterans and their families with access to the military family services program, MFSP, for two years after release in order to support them in their transition to civilian life. The pilot project includes access to seven military family resource centres located in Victoria, Edmonton, Shilo, Valcartier, Trenton, North Bay, and Halifax; access to the military family services program's family information line; and an enhanced familyforce.ca website to assist with transition.

Results as of March 2016 indicate that the military family services program is well received and welcomed by the veteran community. Service utilization is increasing on a monthly basis. As of March, over 2,400 veterans and family members have been served at both pilot and non-pilot locations.

In conclusion, as part of Veterans Affairs Canada's five-year strategic plan, the department is more closely aligning with the Canadian Armed Forces to close gaps in service and address as many barriers as possible before a member of the Canadian Armed Forces releases.

All of these measures help to achieve better outcomes for all of our military personnel, veterans, and their families by ensuring they have the support they need before, during, and after their release from the military.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

We'll start with our first round of questions, which will be six minutes.

If you want to answer questions in English or French, feel comfortable with it. We do have interpretation.

We will start with Mr. Clarke.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for joining us this morning. It is an honour to have you with us here at the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs. All the more so because, if I am not mistaken, this is the first time that we have with us both Canadian Armed Forces personnel and a number of representatives from Veterans Affairs Canada.

We have so many questions to ask you that it is difficult to decide where to start. I would specifically like to talk to Ms. Douglas, Ms. Pellerin, and Mr. Cormier.

I am sure you are aware that a number of veterans have come here in recent months; they have had many complaints about the programs and services provided by your department. They have mentioned benefits, red tape and other problems.

Transition interviews have been held for two years. I myself was released from the Canadian Armed Forces a few months ago, and I had my transition interview by telephone the day before yesterday. It was a very interesting experience. I found it was very well done.

I have noticed that most veterans who have come to tell us about their concerns and their complaints about the treatment they have received were released more than two years ago.

Can you share with us your data, if you have any, about veterans who have been released in the last two years and who have gone through transition interviews? Have the interviews made a difference? Have they improved the situation for veterans?

[Elizabeth Douglas]

Thank you.

I'm going to turn to my colleagues Anne-Marie Pellerin and Robert Cormier, as both have experience with transition interviews and will be able to assist with your question.

[Anne-Marie Pellerin, Director, Case Management and Support Services, Department of Veterans Affairs]

Good morning.

Thank you very much for the question.

Transition interviews have been administered by Veterans Affairs Canada for a number of years now. It's in excess of two years, actually—I think they started back in the early 2000s—but we have invested more aggressively in the transition services and the administration of the transition interview over the last two years, in concert, of course, with our Canadian Armed Forces colleagues.

What the transition interview does is, hopefully, in the pre-release phase of a member's release from the military, enable a Veterans Affairs agent to evaluate, as my colleague mentioned in her opening remarks, any potential risks or barriers to re-establishment and then to counsel the releasing member and family—we encourage families to participate in the transition interview in order to get a full picture of the circumstance—in terms of benefits that our department may be able to provide, as well as community services—

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I am sorry to interrupt you. I understand the end goal of the transition interview, but I'll be more specific. Have you been receiving fewer complaints since you have been doing these kinds of transition interviews? We want to know if this transition interview is actually stopping a lot of the problems.

[Anne-Marie Pellerin]

Yes, I think it would be fair to say that the transition interview enables us to direct the releasing member. In some cases, the releasing members will need case management services, in which case they are assigned to a case manager. In other situations, if the members are functioning well and have no risks in transition, then they are directed potentially to benefits and services but without necessarily the case management services.

What we have added as of October 2015 is the post-release follow-up, which enables us to follow up after release with those members who otherwise are not receiving case management services and who have not been identified as being at risk. On the transition interview, if a member had been identified as minimal risk, we did not follow up prior to October 2015; now we follow up with those as well. Since October 2015, we've followed up with 280 released members who were at minimal risk, and of those, we've had in the vicinity of 60 apply for Veterans Affairs programming. I think that post-release follow-up is demonstrating that added insurance, if you will, in making sure that those who have released are doing well and, where they may not be, providing additional supports and potential benefits for them.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Langlois, you are responsible for the joint personnel support unit. Someone told me that there were not enough senior military personnel, officers, in that unit.

Has that problem been solved?

[Captain, N) Marie-France Langlois (Director, Casualty Support Management, Joint Personnel Support Unit, Department of National Defence]

The joint personnel support unit will be restructured in the coming year. As part of that restructuring, the IPSCs will be the responsibility of designated commands, the army, the navy and the air force. That structure will certainly have more senior officers running the IPSCs.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Very good.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I have a follow-up question to Anne-Marie.

You gave us some numbers, 280 and 60. How do you attempt to find veterans? I know myself that if I don't want to be found, you're not going to find me. Do you keep calling? If you're concerned, do you actually send somebody out and knock on the veteran's door and say, “We're here”?

[Anne-Marie Pellerin]

For the process that we've put in place for that follow-up after release, we usually have the releasing contact information. If the member is moving to a different part of the country from the base from which he or she is releasing, we try to obtain that information during the transition interview. The attempt is to make contact by telephone. We make three attempts. If those are unsuccessful, we will then send out written correspondence and ask the veteran to contact us so that we can pursue that follow-up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

If that goes unanswered, do you still look?

[Anne-Marie Pellerin]

We make our best effort to reach them, but if we can't do it with the contact information that we have, then....

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Quickly, do you have a percentage of veterans whom you just can't find once they leave?

[Anne-Marie Pellerin]

I don't have that figure with me today. As I mentioned earlier, we started this process in October. We had roughly 380 or so veterans in that category who had released, and to date we've contacted 280. For some of them, we are still in the process of trying to contact them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

If you have that information, would you be able to send it to the committee, to the clerk?

[Anne-Marie Pellerin]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

Mrs. Lockhart is next.

[Alaina Lockhart, Liberal, Fundy Royal, NB]

Thank you for appearing today. I think your testimony and the questions and answers we have will be very productive for our study.

I'd like to thank Mr. Clarke for bringing up the fact that it's interesting to sit here and talk about what the initiatives are and the issues that have been identified and what the intent is, versus what we're hearing from the veterans who have gone through some of these services and where the gaps are.

We recognize that many veterans are able to transition well, but we're very concerned about those who are falling into the gaps. I'd like to ask Mr. Phillips and perhaps Vanessa if they could talk to us about the step-by-step process when you get involved, and what that looks like.