Evidence of meeting #18 for Veterans Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was way.
As an Individual
Had the case manager signed it, it would still have been a disaster having that happen.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
We're talking about mental health and ways to check in and ways for that to be recorded and what have you, when you were serving, did you talk about mental health as a group when you would get together?
As an Individual
No. It was something that was kept under wraps. My service was from 2001 until 2010. When my demons started surfacing in 2005, I did approach some people in my unit to say, “Hey, this is happening. I need help,” and the first officer I approached said, “I have that too. Don't let anyone else know or you'll be out of the military faster than you can finish this sentence.”
When things got worse, there was still no conversation going on. I turned around, thanks to an incident with General Dallaire. He kind of kicked me in the ass to actually seek more help. I went through the civilian system at first but I ended up having problems in the military workplace. I ended up going through CAMH here in Toronto to get a psychiatrist.
Of course, I ended up leaving my civilian job at the time because I could not function, and it eventually had to come out that I was having problems. I was immediately stripped of my platoon. Right after that, I was shifted to a desk job. Funny enough, suddenly the computer at the desk disappeared. Then the chair at the desk appeared, and then the desk itself disappeared, and it became a never ending Kafkaesque circle of “Yeah, we're kicking you out as fast as we can”. Thankfully the padre in my unit fought back on my behalf, but to my knowledge there was not a single briefing moment on what PTSD was prior to my release in 2010. I understand that it's changed since. Also, the commanding officer of my unit turned around and tried to keep me active and involved, and seeing that I was becoming very knowledgeable about operational stress injuries tasked me as a special projects officer; that was the title. Normally the situation is that they don't know what to do with you, but in this case it was more like “Study up on this and brief me”. Unfortunately I never managed to get the full thing finished, and then I was out the door.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you both for your attendance and your excellent presentations.
Ms. Northey, I'm just going to ask you a couple of questions first. Are you familiar with My VAC, the online service for people that was mentioned earlier?
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
As a person who is involved in service delivery, do you have any experience with financial counselling or services that veterans may require, or are you familiar with services that are delivered to veterans for that?
As an Individual
Yes. Two years ago when I was putting this report, this one-stop centre, together, I worked with people like a former Brigadier-General Don Macnamara to find out information on the military. I also spoke to a senior case manager of VAC to find out about all the services that were being offered and how good these services were, and what some of the barriers were. You're absolutely right that accessing accurate information was very difficult. I tried to access all of Defence's services, and I had a hard time getting access to those. I also went through the bureaucracy of VAC to try to get information, and I found that we were moving two different streams. I'd have the political side talking about the JPSU, and then the bureaucratic side would be talking about this MDC contract. So it was a very confusing process. When you ask that question, I'm not really sure which stream we're going through.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
I've heard from several veterans or veterans groups who have testified, and I have learned a little bit more today about the importance of having financial counselling for a lot of veterans who are transitioning after release from the forces. I know that on top of everything else they're dealing with, there's stress involved in dealing with financial difficulties and worrying about paying their bills. Do you have any knowledge of that? Do you have any suggestion as to how counselling services or services related to finances could be delivered, which might be helpful?
As an Individual
What I was proposing was to integrate all of the necessary services in the one-stop centres. One of the steps did include the financial budgeting. We brought in credit counselling to talk about the financials with the people involved in that program.
In the brief that you have before you, there is a list of all the programs we would be offering at the one-stop. Financial investments would be one of them.
Also, just to clarify this, it's not about our offering all of the services. It's about integrating the best local services. The only way we know if they're the best is if they're delivered with the same outcome-driven philosophy.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Thank you very much.
Mr. Callaghan, I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. First, you mentioned the number of appeals you had to go through and that it was always an uphill battle to get the benefits you were entitled to. Did you deal with the Veterans Review and Appeal Board in doing those appeals?
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
How long ago was that process, if you don't mind sharing that information?
As an Individual
We finally got approval through VRAB after a long fight in 2007. The injury occurred in 2003.
As an Individual
That's when I was finally released.
I served for quite a few years with a back injury. It's one reason I was never deployed.
Liberal
As an Individual
Yes, for the back injury.
For the operational stress injury, the lawyer assigned to me by the Bureau of Pensions Advocates advised me that, given how VRAB was working and how their decisions were coming out, it would be a waste of time to ask for an appeal at that time. You get only a certain number of appeals, and if you use them, that's it. So I decided with the lawyer and my psych team that it was just not worth going through.
I had received an initial approval after a lengthy fight. Right around the time of my release, I was finally approved for major depression by Veterans Affairs. We're still in the process of trying to get them to accept and acknowledge the PTSD.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Have you had experience with the operational stress injury units, then?
As an Individual
When I was being released, they were toying with the idea of studying an OSISS unit up here in Toronto. For a variety of reasons, it was decided it would not be the most beneficial place for me.
I have a lot of concerns over how that unit is being run. But at the same time, it does work well when it works. I'm not going to speak badly of it. To me, anything that's out there that can help our guys, my brothers and sisters, give them the access to it.
As an Individual
When it was being set up, yes. But at that time, when I had that initial interview with the person who was going to be the peer support coordinator for it, they tried to find people. I was the only one who came forward, saying, I could use this. Six months later they finally had a few other people, but at that point, things had become so rough for me that I could not attend.
Since then, there have been other issues that maybe make it not the best route for me to take. I have participated in other forms of peer support and have worked as a peer support counsellor, though I would say that because my PTSD is so guilt based, turning around and being involved in that group setting can actually trigger me rather badly and amplify the guilt.
Again, part of this is that we're not having a discussion of the different forms that PTSD takes. All of the models that are being used tend to look at very specific forms that do not acknowledge or accept the variety of what this condition is.
Liberal
