Veterans Affairs Committee on Sept. 22nd, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I call the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs to order, 42nd Parliament, meeting number 21 on service delivery review.

I would like to welcome everybody here today, and I hope everybody had a great summer.

First of all, I'd like to welcome a new member. We have Jean Rioux.

We'll give you a couple of minutes to give your background to the committee, and from there we'll move on to the witnesses.

[Jean Rioux, Liberal, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you.

I am a member from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.

My whip asked me to be a member of this committee to replace Madame Romanado. I will be the link with defence as I am a member of the defence committee. I've heard about your committee and it looks very interesting, so I am pleased to join you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

We've had a great committee so far, so if it falls apart we're going to put the blame totally on you.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

On behalf of the committee, if we are unanimous, we should all send Ms. Romanado greetings and thank her for the time she spent on the committee.

I'd like to introduce our guests today. First we have, from the Vanier Institute of the Family, Colonel Russell Mann, special adviser, now retired; and Nora Spinks, chief executive officer. I welcome both of you.

From the Veterans Emergency Transition Services we have Debbie Lowther, co-founder.

I'm sure some of you have appeared at or watched committee meetings. We're going to start off by giving each organization up to 10 minutes to explain what you do for our great men and women. From there we will start the questioning with Robert Kitchen who will do the first six minutes.

We drew straws and I'll call the Vanier Institute of the Family first.

[Nora Spinks, Chief Executive Officer, Vanier Institute of the Family]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good afternoon, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here.

The Vanier Institute of the Family is a national, independent, charitable organization dedicated to understanding the diversity and complexity of families and the reality of family life in Canada.

We're a national resource for anyone who is interested in or involved in families in Canada.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the institute, we were established by General The Right Honourable Georges P. Vanier and his wife Pauline, 50 years ago. Their Excellencies established the institute to study all families in Canada. Since Monsieur Vanier was a husband and a father as well as an officer, a wounded vet, and a commander-in-chief, we honour his legacy in our military and veteran family initiative.

At the institute, we seek to understand families and to enhance the national understanding of how families interact with and have an impact on our social, economic, environmental, and cultural forces.

We fulfill that mission through our research, our publications, our projects, our presentations, partnerships and collaborations, and of course, these days, through networks and social media.

I'm here today to share with you information about the military and veteran family initiative. I'm here to share insights from our round tables with vets and veteran organizations, families, and family support organizations. I'm here to inspire those who study, serve, and support families, to engage with and include military and veteran families in all of their programs and services across the country.

First, here's a little bit about the military veteran family initiative. About five years ago, following a round table that I had the honour to co-host with the current Governor General, the Right Honourable David Johnston, and his wife Sharon, we brought together a group of family experts from across the country, one of whom was a military representative. Of all the distinguished people at the round table, everybody knew a little bit about every aspect of family. Everybody knew a little bit about refugee families, indigenous families, and families new to Canada, and so on. Nobody around the table had a solid understanding of military or veteran families. These were the cream of the crop of Canadian experts and they were not aware of what military and veteran families were experiencing. We followed that with a series of round tables and, ultimately, a conference on military and veteran families, and we solidified this initiative.

The purpose of the initiative is to increase awareness of military and veteran families, their unique experiences, their perspectives, and what they bring to the table; and to bring together those who serve exclusively, or largely, military and veteran families with those organizations that may be serving military and veteran families and not even know it.

We have four primary goals in the initiative, namely to build awareness, to build professional competency, to build organizational capacity, and to build community. Regardless of where military and veteran families live—and we know they are in every community from coast to coast—should they reach out to access any service, whether it be education, health, mental health, or recreation, everybody will have at least a basic understanding of their experiences and their perspectives, so that they'll be able to access equitable services, regardless of what community they live in.

Our ultimate goal is to ensure that those families have equitable access to services in the communities in which they live.

In that past five years, we have been working specifically on building awareness by increasing military literacy. We want every community service provider, every teacher, principal, guidance counsellor, and mental health provider to have at least a basic understanding of military and veteran families—the lingo, the jargon—and to help them understand the reality of their experiences.

We have been working with organizations to build organizational capacity, so that organizations as a whole can begin to identify, recognize, and support military and veteran families.

We have been working on building professional competency, whether it's within the field of early childhood education, or teaching, or mental health.

We're about to launch a new awareness program specifically targeting building awareness for family physicians across the country. That will be launched in November of this year in British Columbia.

We're building community. We want every professional and every organization to know who in their community and who within their peer group is available to assist them when necessary. When a family, a veteran, or a military family goes to reach out for services or support, they are received and immediately start to get what they're looking for as opposed to being put in a paused state, or being referred to somebody else and having to wait for a longer period of time. Everybody will be able to meet their needs.

One of the major accomplishments of the military veteran family initiative has been the establishment of the Canadian military and veteran leadership circle. This was established almost two years ago, and it now includes 35 member organizations from the private, public, and non-profit sector. As you would imagine, some of the military and veteran organizations, like the legion and the organizations that serve veterans, are members.

What's unique about this particular leadership circle is that it also includes organizations like the Canadian Child Care Federation. We know that when a military family has a new child, like other families in Canada, they're likely going to be reaching out and accessing child care services in their community. We're working with organizations like that to make sure they have basic awareness and understanding of the life of a military and veteran family.

We held the inaugural, first of its kind, meeting in 2015, and began to develop and establish collaborations, co-operations, and partnerships across and among organizations. One of the major outcomes has been to reduce duplication and to increase proper collaborations, so that if a family is participating in one program and slides over to another, then it's a seamless move. We've seen organizations pool their resources so that they're better together than they are separately.

The leadership circle was co-founded and co-chaired by the chief of military personnel.. When he left it was taken over by the commander of military personnel command, the deputy minister of VAC, and the chair of the Vanier Institute.

Our purpose of the leadership circle is to strengthen the community of support for Canadian military and veterans' families through knowledge mobilization, relationship building, and coordination of existing services, emerging projects, and programs. What we're looking at is ensuring that the programs that are evolving and developing are evidence based, evidence informed, or evidence inspired. We're linking the research that's being done, the academic research, and the program evaluation research together to make sure what is being made available is of high quality and is based on evidence.

What we're doing now is leveraging the skills, talents, and expertise of the key community leaders, and we're continuing to build awareness, capacity, competency, and community.

As we begin to work together, we want people to understand the experiences of veterans' families and the life they've had while being in the military and in transition. We want the professional community across the country to have an understanding of the mobility, separation, and risk that military families have experienced, and what veterans are going through in transition.

We believe that we can accomplish more together and that we can extend our reach by working together. VAC and government don't have to do this alone. We are working across organizations to eliminate boundaries, to build a bigger picture, and to mobilize community support across the country.

Our members are passionate and diverse. We continue to discover interconnections and interdependencies among stakeholders and service providers, as well as family members. It's about relationships. It's about how we look forward to helping these relationships grow.

In addition to organizations like VETS and other organizations, we have wonderful advancements being made with school guidance counsellors in rehabilitation and integration, and with occupational therapists and physiotherapists across the country.

One of the things the leadership circle has produced is a compendium, which is a perpetual digital document. It is a summary to date of all of the partnerships and collaborations that are in existence across the country, and it is growing continually. The next meeting is this January, and we'll continue to see that grow.

It's our pleasure to be here and to work with you as you continue your work. We continue to work with those organizations that have shared interests and shared mandates, including those around the world in the United States, in Australia, and in the U.K.

We are a resource to you and to other organizations in Canada. We invite you to work with us as we continue to pursue our mandate and our objective to ensure that military and veterans' families have access to the services they need.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

Next, from Veterans Emergency Transition Services, is Debbie Lowther, and she is the co-founder of the organization. Thank you for coming in today, Debbie.

[Debbie Lowther, Co-founder, Veterans Emergency Transition Services]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee. Thank you for having me here today.

It's my pleasure to speak to you today about this important topic of service delivery.

My name is Debbie Lowther, and I am the chair and co-founder of VETS Canada, Veterans Emergency Transition Services. I am also the spouse of a military veteran of 15 years who was medically released in 2005. My husband and I co-founded VETS Canada in 2010.

The aim of VETS Canada is to provide assistance to veterans who are in crisis, who are at risk of homelessness, or who are already homeless.

What sets us apart from other organizations is that we don't wait for the veteran to come to us to ask for help. We go out in search of the veteran and offer them help. We're a volunteer-led organization. We have teams of volunteers in every province and major urban centre across the country, and those teams, as I said, go out into the streets conducting what we call “boots on the ground walks”. They visit the shelters, the drop-in centres, and the areas of the streets where the people who might need some help would be frequenting.

We also respond to referrals from shelters, from concerned family members, and from other organizations, including Veterans Affairs. In 2014 we were awarded a contract by the federal government, making us service providers to Veterans Affairs in the field of crisis and homeless veterans' outreach. To date, we've had the privilege of assisting over 1,200 veterans across this country.

The first thing we do when we come across a veteran who needs some help is to connect them to Veterans Affairs, because we want to make sure veterans are getting the services and benefits they may be entitled to from the department.

What does that mean? That means we deal with the department quite frequently, either on behalf of the veterans or with the veterans, because they sometimes find that process very overwhelming. Our volunteers will act as a mediator, hand-holder, or whatever the need might be.

With that frequent interaction with the department, what are we seeing? We're seeing that over the past couple of years there have been a lot of improvements with the department. We're also seeing that there is improvement still to be made.

In the past few years, the department has reduced the number of forms it takes for a veteran to apply for benefits and services, and that's been a welcome change. The department has endeavoured to reduce turnaround times in processing applications for disability benefits. The goal is 16 weeks. It's been our experience that the majority of the veterans we assist are receiving their benefits in that time frame. Over the past year, for some reason, the cases we're seeing have become increasingly complex, and it takes a little longer for those folks to get their responses.

Over the past six months, we've had the opportunity to work with some of the new Veterans Affairs case managers who have been hired, and it's been noted that with the decreased caseload, or lighter caseload, our veterans are receiving a faster response time from their case managers. For veterans who previously may have had to wait 48 to 72 hours to hear back from a case manager, we're finding that now they're getting a call back in less than 48 hours, and sometimes in less than 24 hours. We do believe that the hiring of additional case managers has been a great improvement.

It has been our experience that there are inconsistencies in how information about benefits is communicated to veterans. More often than not, the case managers are helpful and forthcoming with the information on benefits and services, but there are times, if the veterans don't know the right questions to ask, then they don't get the information, and they don't know what they're entitled to. Imagine a veteran who is struggling with PTSD, and who can barely get out of his house to go to the grocery store, trying to navigate the process of applications for benefits. We would like to see a more standardized process of case manager and client or veteran interaction, with maybe a checklist of some sort.

We're aware that the department is making efforts to provide a more seamless transition from the military by strengthening partnerships with the Department of National Defence, which is a sensible move, we feel. One issue that is frequently brought up, and probably one of the most frustrating, is the fact that when a veteran is still serving, that veteran may undergo a medical assessment by a military doctor to determine whether an injury or illness is service related. When that veteran transfers over to Veterans Affairs, he may have to be reassessed by Veterans Affairs doctors for that same condition or illness.

We've seen cases where people have been released from the military, they've been followed up by military doctors, their conditions have been determined to be a result of their service, and then they are followed up by Veterans Affairs doctors and their benefits are denied. They say that it's not service related. That's one frustration that impedes the seamless transition, we believe.

In closing, I will repeat what I said at the beginning. We've seen a lot of improvements over the last little while, but there are still a lot of improvements that need to be made. We do believe in continued consultation with community groups and veterans themselves. As Nora alluded to, we need collaboration rather than duplication, and we believe there are a lot of organizations that can work together for the betterment of our men and women who served this country. I think it's important for the department to continue to consult with the community organizations and the veterans to get the feedback they need.

I would like to thank you for having me here today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Thank you.

First, with six minutes, we'll start with Mr. Kitchen.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's great to be back, stepping up on this committee, and doing the things we want to do, which is to try to help our veterans and improve their lives with what they deserve.

Thank you, all, for your presentations, and I appreciate that.

I'm going to ask Nora a couple of questions, and to start off, please fill me in a little more about what you do. You're a charitable organization. Your funding comes from...?

[Nora Spinks]

When we were founded by the Governor General, he felt that it would be important to have a funding mechanism that would be there in perpetuity and not necessarily at the whim of either the economy or the government in power at the time. He was wise enough to partner with the prime minister at the time and the provinces to establish an endowment fund. Our funding comes from a portion of the interest earned from that endowment every year.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Okay. Can you tell us roughly what that might run to? I don't need your financial statements or anything, but just an idea.

[Nora Spinks]

We have an annual budget of about $750,000. That covers all of the projects and the things we do. We have some alternative sources of funds that come from projects and contracts in government, and that kind of thing. By and large the base funding is covered through the endowment.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Okay.

You said you do research, presentations, and that sort of thing, and you're involved in social media, etc. Is that more in one part of Canada, or is it all across the country?

[Nora Spinks]

It's all across the country, coast to coast to coast, in both official languages in everything we do. The presentations are at conferences, meetings, workshops, and in the private sector.

An employer, for example, may hire us to come to help their HR department or their senior executive team to understand modern families and what's happening in the research.

We do a lot of census analysis. We do a lot of work with academics, so for example we're working on a big national project called On the Move with about 30 different organizations and universities on families who live in one part of the country and work in another, which is living apart together.

We cover everything, including family violence, family formation, family functioning, and military veterans' families.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I am a product of a military family, and I grew up in a military family. Until I became a member of this committee, I didn't realize to what extent...and now I have a chance to reflect on what went on. I am pleasantly surprised and happy to hear that someone is starting to express what a military family goes through, because a lot of time people don't realize that when a soldier signs up, the whole family signs up, even though they don't realize they're signing up. The country doesn't know that, and we need to make sure we educate people so they understand that.

We're talking about veterans here, and I believe the more we educate people, and the more we educate our veterans, the easier the transition is going to be. The whole purpose of what we're looking at right now is timeliness and that whole step from when they're in the service to when they become a veteran.

How do you see what you're doing is going to improve that timeliness?

[Nora Spinks]

I'll introduce my colleague, Russ Mann, who's a vet. He's working with us on this project, and he can perhaps add to the answer.

One of the things that happens is that the academic researchers who gather all this information report in their academic journals. It could be of benefit to people on the ground. We do a lot of knowledge translation from the research that's being done, so that the experiences can be translated to service delivery.

When I say “evidence based”, it means taking that evidence and making it part of a new program, or a new way of delivering services, to better meet the needs of those who are seeking support. For “evidence informed”, it might be something creative or innovative that nobody has ever done before, but we can bring it back to research and back to researchers. We make that bridge so that people aren't just going off with good intentions, but perhaps in the wrong direction.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Knowledge translation is the important part here. A lot of times that's what happens. The knowledge is there, but it never gets translated. That's our biggest concern, I think, with Veterans Affairs. We're not seeing that translation when we have these great ideas and how we're moving that to our veterans so they can be provided with what they do.

Do you get involved with CIMVHR, with that organization at all?

[Nora Spinks]

Yes, we've been part of CIMVR since its inception. Annually, Russ and I have been playing host to a researchers' round table. Those round tables allow us to connect the researchers with the real life that's going on. We take that information back to the leadership circle and make sure that everybody is aware. It's a quick turnaround. Whenever anything new happens.... It's not just CIMVR, it's also the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue, and at Syracuse, and in California. There are a number of groups that we do that with. It's really important.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Thank you. I appear to have run out of time.

Debbie, hopefully I might get a chance to ask you one a bit later.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Mr. Eyolfson, you're up next, for six minutes.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for coming.

There's valuable information about organizations like yours that are providing these services. We need information on how to help optimize these.

Ms. Spinks, from your organization's experience with navigating veterans, how would you comment on how things are moving with both the Department of Defence and Veterans Affairs with the mental health issues they face? Would you say things are improving?

[Nora Spinks]

I can comment on the research, and maybe Russ and Debbie can add to this, as well.

I think there are good intentions. One of the challenges occurs when both the Department of Defence and Veterans Affairs try to handle the whole issue by themselves, when we already have community services, mental health services, counselling services, and supports that could be relied on if they had the appropriate training and awareness. I think, from our perspective, there are some good things happening.

To follow up on the previous question, what may be happening that's great in one part of the country isn't necessarily known in another. Trying to translate and mobilize that experience, as well as that knowledge, is critically important. We're getting better at it, but I think that's an area where we need better collaboration, co-operation, and partnership with community, and better sharing of information so that nobody has to duplicate services, nobody is competing for scarce resources, and where we can pool our energy, our experience, and our knowledge.

We learn from Debbie and her crew all the time. From Vanier's perspective, it's not just taking Debbie's experience working with homeless veterans to our military initiative, but it's also taking her experience into the world of homelessness outside of the military. There's an enormous amount of knowledge that Debbie is gathering that can be taken to other segments of the community dealing with other elements. What Debbie is learning on mental health issues and vets, we can then take to homelessness and mental illness somewhere else. It gives us a wonderful opportunity with this relationship.

[Doug Eyolfson, Liberal, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

You have been talking about how your organization is instructing and educating caregivers on what services are there, and how veterans and their families can access them.

What can Veterans Affairs do to help, from their end, in facilitating this? What kind of improvements? I can leave this open for everybody.

[Colonel, Retired) Russell Mann (Colonel (Retired), Special Advisor, Vanier Institute of the Family]

I'd be happy to jump in on that. I want to be careful that I don't sound too blunt, but I do have a military background. I was told to cut things fairly short.

We need to invest. We need to invest in providing resources to caregivers that don't put more burdens on caregivers. The people I know who are dealing with veterans who have post-traumatic stress, TBI, complex cases of rehab, and mental wellness issues don't have the time, necessarily, to do full-time classroom studies, for example. They may have time to pull up an app, and they may have time to go pull up resources when they have a quiet moment in their day.

It's important those resources be there. I think DND and VAC are both doing a good job of trying to make the dialogue easier to have. We've seen more people coming forward now because we are seeing progress on reducing stigma. For caregivers, it's especially poignant, because at the very moment they're being asked to do more for their loved one, their own mental health suffers. Self-care becomes a very important aspect. Investment in self-care is one of those ways to help sustain the circle of support around that military or veteran family.

A number of initiatives have come out in the States that are promising. We need to make sure that we can vet them adequately, to say, does this have merit in Canada? What are the things that work there? What are things that might be challenges or not working so well? Let's have a critical eye and not necessarily just adopt it because our allies use it. Let's find out how well it works, and then take the best of breed, bring it home, and make it work in a Canadian context.

Is that helpful?