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.
June 14th, 2017 / 4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all very much for joining us today. It is greatly appreciated. Hopefully some of these answers will give us an insight into how you do things in your country, and that we can share best practices to make sure we're doing what we can for our veterans here in Canada. We really appreciate your time.
You mentioned that there are no regional offices. Your main office, or the only office, is in Wellington. How do you make sure there is outreach to smaller communities across your country, engaging in outreach to veterans right across your country without physically being in each community? Do you use technology? Can you share some ideas that you may have for a country as vast as Canada, where we have rural areas and have a hard time making sure we're engaging our veterans in smaller communities?
4:50 p.m.
Head, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
We work a lot with the Royal New Zealand RSA. They are out in local communities. They do have field officers who work with local veterans. We're very much working with them to ensure that veterans know what services can be provided. They act as that key contact.
We also have it within our communication plan that we make visits to the local RSAs, where we take our case managers. That's an opportunity for veterans to come together to be able to talk about any specific issues with our individual staff. We have the expertise to be able to respond to them.
The other way is obviously through our technology, our website. That has information on how to contact us. We run an inquiry line within Veterans' Affairs so veterans and others in the community can have a direct link to get the right information very quickly so they don't have to go through other channels.
We're looking at other ways we can develop in this area. We are looking to also involve social media by the end of the year. We believe this is key when we're starting to look at our contemporary veteran.
Another advocacy group that we have a very good relationships with is No Duff. Again, as I stated, this is a very new group here in New Zealand that certainly has context for the contemporary veterans. We have built those relationships to ensure that when they find veterans who need further support and treatment and rehabilitation, we are able to work together to ensure that it is provided.
4:50 p.m.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
What feedback are you getting with regard to the online services you mentioned? Are veterans happy with the online service you provide, and is there a lot of uptake?
4:50 p.m.
Head, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
While their ages range from 19 to 105, by far the majority of our veterans are over 70. Their preferred lines of communication are through email and phone, and also through postal letters. Those are the mediums we use because that is what they've told us they need. When I talk about social media, that's a move to be able to meet the needs of what we consider our future client, the contemporary veteran.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
You talk about contemporary veterans having different needs. I suppose your last answer kind of identifies that as an issue moving forward, to try to address those contemporary veterans and adapt your services to their needs.
With regard to peer support, you mentioned some of the activities that are happening on the ground in local communities. With peer support for contemporary veterans, are you seeing that a way for you to have outreach to contemporary veterans is through members who have served and have gained the confidence of fellow veterans?
4:55 p.m.
Head, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
Absolutely. Certainly, No Duff, as an organization that is run on peer support, is able to match veterans with the right peer as well. They have seen probably about a hundred veterans in the last year in the contemporary age range. That's where our link is important. They are building the organization and the relationship with us to ensure that they can link back, because they are the first responders, if you like, and we certainly count on them with regard to providing the secondary support.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
Is that group you mentioned—sorry, I didn't catch the name of it—funded by the Veterans' Affairs department? How do they operate?
4:55 p.m.
Head, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
No, it is independent. It is a voluntary group.
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
4:55 p.m.
Liberal
Colin Fraser Liberal West Nova, NS
All right.
With regard to service attribution of injury and illness, and the determination that is made, I understand that there are now two evidential standards employed in New Zealand: the presumptive list and the statement of principles. I'm wondering what you have seen since this evidentiary standard has been in effect with regard to appeals: whether there are more appeals, whether they are more successful, and how that system works.
4:55 p.m.
Manager, Veterans' Services, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
Since the new act has come in and we have started using those statements of principles, what has happened is that some veterans who were declined conditions under the old act have been able to reapply under a clean slate and have actually had the conditions accepted. It's a much clearer guideline for our decision officers.
In terms of appeals, we take a very close look at any appeals now to make sure that we have the right information up front, and we try to circumvent their getting to that point. We've had some success in that area. Had we gone back in the first place, looked at the information, and found that the veteran perhaps did have more information but it wasn't submitted in that first application, it wouldn't have got to that point.
4:55 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for this opportunity to talk with you and perhaps pick your brain and see if we can come up with better services for our veterans here.
I wonder if we could talk about military sexual trauma. That's something that came up during our review, discussion, and research into injuries and the mental stresses, the mental health issues that subsequently come from operational stress injuries. Do you offer military sexual trauma survivors access to case managers who would have experience in dealing with sexual assault, and a certain sensitivity, I guess, to a victim who has been assaulted?
4:55 p.m.
Colonel Clare Bennett Chief Mental Health Officer, Defence Health Directorate, New Zealand Defence Force
Steve, do you want to talk about sexual assault?
4:55 p.m.
Steve Mullins Director, Integrated Wellness, New Zealand Defence Force
Good afternoon.
Yes, it's a good question. From a New Zealand Defence Force perspective, there has been a very strong emphasis on a campaign towards operational respect, which addresses sexual assault among other behaviours that would be deemed inappropriate. That campaign has included our recruitment of personnel with expertise in case-managing sexual assault. They are internal personnel who are being employed on a permanent, full-time basis. The attitude toward that is that eventually, as the potential number of cases diminishes, those practitioners would move toward education-based services to ensure that, from a cultural perspective, the New Zealand Defence Force is well on top of those aspects.
5 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you. I'm aware that you're interested in increasing the percentage of women in the armed forces, and I applaud that. I think that makes for a stronger and better force.
I also have read that you have town halls or training programs. You were just mentioning them and the specialists who lead them. Could you elaborate on the restricted disclosure system? It's alluded to in the literature. Has it been successful? Have you made any changes to it? How do you see it working?
5 p.m.
Director, Integrated Wellness, New Zealand Defence Force
Obviously there are some sensitivities around this information, but since the respect campaign, we have found that we have opened up dialogue and the confidence of our staff, especially our female staff, who know they are able to come forward knowing that their information will be treated professionally and appropriately within the Privacy Act, and also knowing that the issue will be dealt with through the chain of command, but in a way that would be managed appropriately, so that retribution or any remedial action would be taken through a natural justice process.
5 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Do you follow up? Is there any emphasis on treatment for mental health issues that could result from sexual trauma?
5 p.m.
Director, Integrated Wellness, New Zealand Defence Force
Yes, absolutely.
Internally, we also have a number of support service medical-related practitioners. So they would be internal to our health directorate, and we also utilize the services of professionals within the New Zealand public sector. Those would be with other government agencies or other non-governmental agencies in order to assist with that treatment aspect.
5 p.m.
NDP
Irene Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON
Thank you.
I also wonder about the ratio of case managers to veterans. You said that there are 68 case managers who look after about 3,000 veterans, or did I hear that wrong?
5 p.m.
Manager, Veterans' Services, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand
Sixty-eight is our total staff at Veterans Affairs. We have 16 case managers, and each case manager will be responsible for an average of 200 veterans, depending on the level of care required. We have many more veterans who are not actively case-managed. We are aware of them. We may have case-managed them in the past, but at the present time they don't need anything from us. They're coping quite nicely at home, but as soon as anything changes for them, they will be actively case-managed, and they will go back to that same case manager they had previously, so there is always that one point of contact. That helps us to manage those good relationships with our veterans, and even though we're not meeting up face to face on a regular basis, they have formed a relationship over a period of time with that veteran.
The actively case-managed veterans are those who either require some support at home at the moment or some form of treatment, whether it be physical, surgical, or counselling and mental health types of treatment. Those are the veterans we actively case manage, and the level of risk and need determines how often we are in contact with them. So for perhaps our younger contemporary veterans who have mental health issues and who are high risk, we could be having weekly contact or more, depending on the situation at that time.
