Evidence of meeting #56 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 benefits.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
Very good.
Also, one of the things we talk about a lot is peer support. Have you looked at peer support, third party organizations, that sort of thing? Is it a coordinated effort throughout your systems?
5:20 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
We work with the veterans service organizations. There are veterans service organizations in the medical facilities as well as in the regional offices. They are there to help veterans make it through the system and to be available for whatever assistance a veteran would want. We talk to them on a regular basis. I personally have met with the leadership of the major VSOs to ensure we're hearing from them about the issues they think are important. We consider them to be a very important source of information.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
What would you say are the major challenges, at this point, that you really are delving into in order to provide better service to veterans?
5:20 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
There are several things. First, we need to put out our reports in a more timely way. If a report is not timely, it's just not going to have the impact. Second, we want to make sure we get down to the root cause of what really happened. It's very easy to say that this particular issue is a problem, but if we don't go into why it's a problem and how it can be fixed, then I don't believe we're providing the kind of service we should be providing. We're spending a lot of time telling the story of not only what happened, but also why it happened and what can be done to try to ensure it doesn't happen again.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
One of the challenges we are working through here in Canada is the use of cannabis as a treatment. Is that something that has come up with you? How is the U.S. dealing with that at this point?
5:20 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
That would be a decision of the secretary.
Right now in the United States, under certain state law it's legal, but it's not legal under federal law. Until they change the federal law, the secretary said he didn't think that was an option on the table, but certainly he said that he had seen some studies that were interesting, so they might help.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
At this point it's not a treatment option that's offered through VA at all.
5:25 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
No, I don't believe so.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
Very good.
I want to go back to families. That's an area we focus on quite a bit: what the role of family is, what we expect of them for support, and also how we support them. Could you speak to that a little, as well, in the context of your programs?
5:25 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Sure.
Again, VA would have a number of programs relating either to benefits or services available to families or to how families can be used to support the veterans. It certainly comes up a lot with the mental health aspect, as I said. Veteran suicide, the secretary said, is his number one clinical priority. Certainly the support veterans receive is critically important, particularly those with suicidal ideations Family members can play an important role in helping veterans through some very tough issues.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
How is the bank of research for veterans in the U.S. on the topic of suicide ideation?
5:25 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
I think it's pretty strong. One project we worked on recently relates to the veterans crisis line, which is a suicide hotline for veterans. It gets over 500,000 contacts a year. We identified areas for improvement, but they have extremely dedicated people working at the VCL on the phones, trying to help veterans. In addition, VA has a number of areas where they're doing research on suicide and related issues.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Alaina Lockhart Liberal Fundy Royal, NB
In terms of that hotline, have you made any moves to modernize it with apps, or anything like that, for online use, too?
5:25 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
They do provide online services, as well. They have a texting service that they provide, as well as email. I think they're considering an app. I'm not sure if they have one yet, but I've heard they may be considering it.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, sir, for coming.
You were talking about the kinds of things that you audit and you mentioned the opioid crisis, and you see how there might be problems with that. Among the things you audit, do you audit prescribing patterns among providers, say if you find that there are providers that are giving prescriptions of certain medications that might be causing problems?
5:25 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
We could either audit that or we could investigate it. If there's a particular provider that we believe is prescribing things illegally, we have the authority under our criminal authority to open a criminal investigation and to prosecute if appropriate.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
If the pattern is not illegal, is there a way of tracking if it's just, say, not as clinically indicated as it might be, just departing from practice guidelines?
5:25 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
We could do a national health care review on, say, opioid prescriptions. We have the ability to be flexible in what we do and focus on what we consider is the most impactful thing.
Right now we have a number of different projects relating to opioid use. I'll give you an example of one thing we're looking at, which is about 32% of veterans receive care in the community, meaning from a provider outside of the VA medical network. If you're in the VA medical network, they have an opioid safety initiative that ensures that it's done as safely as possible. Once you get out in the community, they're not required to follow that same initiative. We're looking at whether or not there should be additional protection on opioid use prescribed when a veteran goes to see a provider in the community.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
If providers are finding that there are systemic inefficiencies.... For instance, Ms. Lockhart talked about cannabis and, as you said, federal law right now is not permitting its use, but certain states do. If you had providers saying that they know through their research that their practice could improve by having access to cannabis or something else and they think their ability to provide care is compromised, where up the line could someone make these suggestions for policy changes? Would that be through your office? Through what office would people send suggestions up the line that they can provide better care?
5:30 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
For something like that to change a policy of the VA, it would be to go through the VA. If we see something that we think could be something that would make the VA more effective for veterans, we might write a report on it after doing an audit or review, or just some kind of assessment, but the actual policy change would have to be through the VA.
June 5th, 2017 / 5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Mr. Reynolds was talking about one of the things they have programs for, homeless vets. One of the things that we've noticed not just among vets, but in the homeless population in general, is it's believed a large proportion of the homeless have inadequately treated mental illness. Although Mr. Reynolds mentioned that when someone's about to become homeless they make sure they get the right loans, some people, again, become homeless simply because they're too disorganized, and their mental health has not been adequately addressed. Is there a way of tracking through your department if there are gaps in the system, if you find that some of your homeless vets might actually not be victims of a bad financial situation but more victims of inadequate mental care, and if that could be better addressed?
5:30 p.m.
Inspector General, Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Sure, that would be something the VA should have information on, on homelessness. Trying to reduce homelessness has been a priority for the VA. I believe they have significant information on their programs there.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
I have no further questions. Thank you very much.
