Evidence of meeting #59 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 veteran.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
No, okay.
Is it really up to them to reach out, or is there a way of keeping track of who is receiving services or where the veterans stand down the line?
5:25 p.m.
Head, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
I think that going forward it will be easier with the change in policy I'm talking about. But at the moment, when a person transitions out of the New Zealand Defence Force, they go out into the community of New Zealand, and unless they come back through another avenue, we don't know where they are.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Thank you very much.
I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about things with you today. I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the issue of mefloquine. As you know it's an issue around the world right now, an anti-malaria drug that was used significantly in the past. However, New Zealand has an amazing record in regards to this drug, in being so proactive in ensuring that it wasn't used only as a drug of last resort and that it was monitored. Ground trials were done and if it were approved for use in the operational context, the personnel receiving it were followed up and monitored as well. So you've had very little issue with veterans suffering from the side effects of that drug. I see that you've worked with the United Kingdom defence study on that. It was very exciting for me to see how proactive you were in that. It shows a real concern for your veterans.
You have your veterans advisory board and I understand that members are appointed by the Minister of Veterans Affairs'. I'm just wondering about the process for that. You have seven members and one serving veteran on that board. What kind of an opportunity or input do the veterans themselves—disabled veterans, the ones that you service most—have into who might be considered to sit on that board?
5:25 p.m.
Head, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
The RSA would be one mechanism. The board is very new. It's only been going for a couple of years, so if you look at their work program over the last year, it's mainly been focused on the repatriation policy changes that have been made here in this country.
We're getting back into the swing of things. Veterans, and certainly those who are on that panel, are very supportive of the people who have been appointed.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
That's excellent. Thank you.
We have an issue here with our case managers being under a lot of stress, and we're trying to make their load more reasonable.
How are your case managers trained, and are they veterans themselves or do they have some kind of national defence background? Also, can you tell me anything about their longevity of service, because expertise becomes so important?
5:25 p.m.
Manager, Veterans' Services, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
Our case managers have a wide range of backgrounds. When we are looking for recruits, we always look for someone who has had experience in a case management role in a previous life, because we understand that they need to be able to manage a number of things quite intensely for our veterans.
We've had some ex-service personnel, an ex-mental health nurse, and occupational therapists. Yes, we have quite a wide variety. We have some who have worked with the ACC in the past, so they are aware of dealing with those sorts of injuries and managing them.
We have a very good retention rate with a lot of our case managers. Some have been there for 10 years and so they really enjoy their jobs. We've had some quite significant changes within the department over the last couple of years and over half of the case management team are new recruits, just because of the change of where we were sitting. This means that we now have a lot of younger case managers, who have interacted and fitted in very well with what we call our “classic” case managers, the ones who have been here for a while.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
Cathay Wagantall Conservative Yorkton—Melville, SK
Do you have specific training when they come to this new job?
5:30 p.m.
Manager, Veterans' Services, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
Yes, we do.
The training is specifically around the act in the first place and the policies now, and we have peer review of all our work. They sit and listen to our conversations with our veterans. We have our team of rehab advisers who talk to them about any conflict issues or conflict cases. They all sit on the same floor with them, so it's a very interactive and a very supportive environment for them.
One of the things we have recognized with the new contemporary veterans coming on board now with more mental health issues and more intensive case management required is the need to safeguard our staff so they don't become overwhelmed. We are certainly taking that into consideration.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have a couple of follow-up questions. You talked about the challenges of finding veterans once they're discharged, particularly if they don't seem to have specific needs. Again, I want to come back to those who have experienced military sexual trauma.
I wonder if there is a special effort to find those discharged survivors and support them, because clearly this is an OSI that could be very problematic for the rest of their lives.
5:30 p.m.
Director, Integrated Wellness, New Zealand Defence Force
Yes, you're absolutely correct.
We haven't attempted at this point in time to identify those individuals. We'd be relying on their coming forward for historic-related issues. In any contemporary or current situations, we would absolutely be doing a wraparound for those individuals if they couldn't continue in service. We would make sure that was well recognized within the Veterans' Affairs handover within the Privacy Act and Health Information Privacy Code, with their consent to share the information.
5:30 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you.
I was quite interested in Ms. Wagantall's question with regard to mefloquine and the fact that you did not use mefloquine aggressively. Obviously, you have veterans who were in Vietnam who were exposed to malaria. Have you any idea why the New Zealand Defence Force chose not to use that particular drug?
5:30 p.m.
Head, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
My understanding of some of that was the linkages with Australia. I'm sorry, but we don't have the details here amongst our group.
5:30 p.m.
Director, Integrated Wellness, New Zealand Defence Force
To add to those comments, the New Zealand Defence Force is well advanced within their occupational health strategy and policies, both historically and at present. Even as of last year, there was an independent external review into the manner and method within the New Zealand Defence Force around occupational health and safety.
That's really put this organization in good stead in understanding the risk, and mitigating the likelihood of any issues via effective controls. This means that if elimination was one of the controls, that would obviously be where—from a health and safety perspective—the defence force would aim to eliminate all potential risk.
5:35 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Neil Ellis
Thank you.
That ends our hour.
On behalf of the committee, I would like to thank all of you for helping us today. If there were any questions that you felt you wanted to elaborate further on, or that you didn't have answers for, please email your response to our clerk and he will get them to our committee members.
On behalf of the committee, I invite every one of you to visit us. We would enjoy hosting you.
That said, I have to switch to a bit of committee business here.
Next Monday's meeting includes a video conference from the U.K., so the time change is 11 o'clock until 1 o'clock. We will be serving lunch.
No meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday.
We have a motion to adjourn from Mr. Bratina.
(Motion agreed to)
Thank you.