Evidence of meeting #22 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 come.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Yes, it does.
For Veterans Transition Network again, in your annual report there are some impressive numbers. The report shows how your donor funding has increased dramatically since 2012. Congratulations on that.
What would you attribute that success to? Would this be an increase in the awareness of veterans' needs, or is there some other factor that's contributed to it?
Director, National Operations, Veterans Transition Network
I think it's across the board. We worked hard to expand the areas that we're applying to for funding. When we started, we were mainly funded by places like the Royal Canadian Legion and grassroots organizations. We've tried hard to expand. We're now funded by True Patriot Love and Wounded Warriors. Veterans Affairs coming on board was an enormous help to us in having those clients covered by government funding, so we could free up the money for more programs for more veterans who weren't covered.
We've tried to diversify where we draw funds, but I think a big part of it is because of the awareness. More people are aware of veterans' issues and, I think, donating to military organizations. Just this year, with the 22 Push-Ups—22 Days Challenge, I know that Wounded Warriors aimed to raise $22,000 by the end of the year, and they made $30,000 in the first month.
There's a lot of awareness out there, which is translating into more community funding for programs like ours.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Dussault, Mr. Simard, I do not speak a lot of French, but I am learning. I learn a new word each day. Thank you for your presentation.
That's as far as I'm going to go, because if I do, then we'll never get any questions in.
What we've talked about a lot in our committee has been about dealing with family members, and in your presentation I see there's some talk about family members.
If I understand you correctly, there are not a lot of family members who are participating in your program. Is that correct?
Director, Nursing, Réseau d'accueil des agents et agentes de la paix (Maison La Vigile)
Actually, families are not part of the programming at La Vigile. Just the veterans.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
As I think has been alluded to by others, often when family members participate in a program, there seems to be a better success rate with more acceptance and understanding.
When you accept people into your program, they come through various systems, but can family members come up and say they think a spouse needs to be part of this program? Is there an opportunity for that?
Director, Nursing, Réseau d'accueil des agents et agentes de la paix (Maison La Vigile)
I am sorry, but I did not hear the question very well.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Can a member of the family call you to say that someone needs your services, for example?
Director, Nursing, Réseau d'accueil des agents et agentes de la paix (Maison La Vigile)
The request must always come from Veterans Affairs Canada. If the wife of a veteran ever calls about an admission, we refer her to Veterans Affairs Canada. The request cannot come directly from a family member or from a veteran. It must come from a case manager at Veterans Affairs Canada.
Director General, Réseau d'accueil des agents et agentes de la paix (Maison La Vigile)
The training that the Maison La Vigile provides is given by a criminologist who, after being a corrections officer for 15 years or so, became a criminologist and then took charge of an assistance program. He is now retired and works for us. He provides our training. He is a psychotherapist and a member of the Ordre des psychologues du Québec.
That aspect of our program is expanding rapidly at the moment. We have adapted our training programs to the requests we have received from police forces and paramedics associations. We have not yet received any requests for training programs from Veterans Affairs Canada.
Director General, Réseau d'accueil des agents et agentes de la paix (Maison La Vigile)
Up to now, we have not had any family members coming to the Maison La Vigile, because we have no funding.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
I assume when you're talking about training, you're talking about training your staff. How long does that training program take? Does it include veterans who might be able to take up some of those positions? I ask because we often hear that when certain services are provided, there is a better response when a veteran is there because the veteran understands. Mr. Allen spoke to it a little earlier too, on the reality. A veteran understands the language, and if a veteran is part of your training program, he or she understands what's happening there and might be able to be of a little more assistance.
Director, Nursing, Réseau d'accueil des agents et agentes de la paix (Maison La Vigile)
In terms of staff training, a lot of training programs on personality disorders are given by psychologists. As for the nursing staff, we have a veteran who works nights as a nurse. We also have a nurse who was previously in the military.
Director General, Réseau d'accueil des agents et agentes de la paix (Maison La Vigile)
We have set aside quite a considerable amount in our budget for staff training so that the staff is always able to respond appropriately to our clients' needs.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Thank you.
Mr. Allen and Mr. Thorne, I appreciate your being here today. Some of us had the privilege of seeing Contact! Unload; it was a very powerful and inspiring presentation, and your support of it is tremendous. A lot of what you talk about, I think, is very evident in the presentation and in the play. As l said earlier, I think Canadians need to see that so that Canadians get a better understanding. We see the one young gentleman in the play who is suffering, and he is suffering not because he was in combat, but because he was on a radio and had to make an order for something that transpired. We see those things, and it's very powerful.
You said you're in a number of provinces, and I'm from Saskatchewan. We have veterans there too. I think this is a very powerful thing, and your treatment is impressive. Do you anticipate going to Saskatchewan in the future?
Director, National Operations, Veterans Transition Network
Unfortunately, not yet. We're almost there. As I said, in line with our typical process, once we hit that kind of critical mass with a sufficient number of people for us to deliver a program locally, we will. For our wait-list for western Canada at the moment, we have two or three names that are from Saskatchewan, so we're not very well known there at the moment. At the moment we are bringing those people from Saskatchewan who can attend a program in B.C. If they are available, we will cover their travel costs to bring them over. Again, making sure that the program is accessible is goal number one.
If you know anyone who can introduce us in Saskatchewan, then I'd be happy to talk to them and set something up.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Thank you.
Can we get a copy of your research, as in the research references?
Director, National Operations, Veterans Transition Network
Definitely. If I can get some contact information for who to send that to, I'd be—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis
We'll get that contact information to you. Thank you.
Next we have Mr. Fraser, who is going to split his time with Mr. Rioux.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for your presentations. Thank you also for the great work that you are doing with veterans day after day.
I want to start by asking a question to the Veterans Transition Network, and I'll be brief because I'm sharing my time.
Can you explain how a veteran or a soldier about to release would actually get involved with your network? How do they find you, or do you find them?
Program Coordinator, Atlantic, Veterans Transition Network
Typically we operate in a grassroots format. We work with members talking to other members, and it seems to work the best. Most veterans and most members releasing don't trust the system—I'm sure that may come as a shock—but they do trust each other, so we try to keep that grassroots approach as much as possible.
What has to happen is that as a coordinator.... Somebody asked if the wife or the family can contact us. I have had wives contact me and say, “My husband needs your program”, and I say, “That's great; have your husband call me.” One of the things we need is for them to make that contact and for them to initiate, which tells us they're ready to do the treatment and they're ready to go through the program to get the work done.
What happens then is that we work with them. The first things I will ask are, “Are you with Veterans Affairs? Do you have a case manager? Did you open the door for discussion with your case manager? Do you have a therapist? Are you seeing a social worker or a psychologist?” I open the door for conversation. Why? It's because we're not here to do anybody else's job. What we're here to do is to help empower them in their own care plans.
When we do that, then all of a sudden we have so many people, and we bring everybody together to work on this one individual to come to success. That's how we do it. We keep it low key, and it's totally up to them. When they contact us, they're telling us they're ready to do the work, and that's key for us.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
My other question is, what follow-up is done after somebody has gone through the programming and received the services you offer? What follow-up is there to make sure they're doing well and to make sure the good work you're doing is being reflected in the research?
Program Coordinator, Atlantic, Veterans Transition Network
There are a couple of things.
We have what's called a calling list. When we start our program, we do a fan-out list, as you would do in a typical conventional military unit. You would have a fan-out list of everybody's name and number so that you can contact each other. We do that, and it's like the buddy system. While we're in the program, we use that call list to instill that buddy system that they had before. They call each other in the interim. They call each other just to do a check-in, and they practise their communication skills.
Those numbers don't disappear at the end of the program, and quite often the veterans stay connected for years and years afterwards, so they are well connected. We do the research, and we're always back there. Three months later or six months later or 18 months later, they get a call from us, and they say, “Oh, yes, I remember now.” It helps them to go back to say, “Yes, I remember that program. Where am I from that program, and what am I doing right now? How far have I come since that program, and how successful have I been?”