Thank you very much.
Just by way of background to let you know what I do in my practice, I've been working at the Parkwood OSI Clinic for about 10 years, since 2006, as a part-time medical consultant, but my main area of practice in London is in addictions and mental health with the CMHA London and Addiction Services. I've been a member of the Ontario Minister of Health's advisory committee on addressing the opiate crisis in Ontario. That's some of the background I want to give you so that you know where I'm coming from.
The mental health care provided in OSI clinics has always been focused on PTSD. Significant time and resources are spent in those clinics to filter out the diagnosis of PTSD as distinct from other mental health conditions that are not necessarily treated in OSI clinics.
If we're going to make an impact on reducing veterans' suicide and improving their mental health, I think it's important that these OSI clinics broaden their scope and treat other mental health conditions. Depression is a large component of what we see, but the veterans do not necessarily qualify for treatment within these clinics unless there's an identified service-related PTSD condition. We make the diagnosis of sub-threshold PTSD to allow people to be qualified for treatment.
The other big impediment that I see in my experience in these clinics is that there's a significant problem with alcohol and substance abuse in the population of patients we see in the OSI clinics. Alcohol use disorder is tracked, but other substances are not necessarily tracked that closely.
We don't have the capacity in the OSI clinics to address these problems. We refer people to treatment programs and residential rehab programs, such as Homewood, Bellwood, and other programs in the province, but we do not actually have the capacity to address these problems in the clinic. We do not have an addiction counsellor in our clinics. The main treatment in PTSD is not pharmacotherapy; it is mainly psychotherapy by psychology. Psychotherapy and trauma exposure therapy do not work that well, if at all, in the background of alcohol abuse and substance abuse.
It would be nice to broaden the scope of the OSI clinics to address whatever mental health concern the member presents with. These are people who need care otherwise anyway, whether related to their service or related to transitioning to civilian life. Whether they get the care through the federal OSI clinic system or through the provincial health care system, I think it's important that the care be delivered in a timely fashion. My philosophy is that we deliver the care that's needed and worry about the funding later, whether it's provincial or federal. That could be worked out later, at a committee elsewhere.
That's the gist of what I want to say. I think we owe a duty of care to veterans who have willingly risked their lives, life and limb, to serve and protect our country. The least we can do is give back and provide the service they need after their service to our country.
Thank you.