Thank you.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak on behalf of veterans, veterans' caregivers and families.
I would like to start by telling you about myself. I am former military medical officer who served in both the regular and reserve forces. I have participated in numerous military operations both at home and overseas. I have a unique general practice in Halifax that is composed of former military and RCMP members and their families.
I would like to thank Veterans Affairs Canada for the wonderful help and services that are presently provided to our veterans. There are many positive aspects to the programs available to our veterans, notably for mental health treatment. It is my understanding that veterans' mental health supports are only available to current spouses and their children as long as the veteran gives permission. There are no mental health services for ex-spouses, parents of veterans and children older than 25 years.
Many veterans have been exposed to multiple stressors during their careers. Their spouses and children follow them from base to base, often giving up careers and friends. If a veteran has an occupational stress injury, the family dynamics can be further stressed.
I am a family physician, so I believe the best way I can communicate the issues that I see in my practice is to give examples of how lack of access to mental health care affects spouses, caregivers, children and ex-spouses. These are not just single cases but represent multiple examples from the veteran patient population.
Veterans' families can be subjected to extreme stressors, not only if a veteran suffers from mental health stressors, but physical and financial stressors. When a marriage breaks down, everyone is a loser. The veteran may be getting mental health services via Veterans Affairs, but the ex-spouse receives no assistance. In this case, it is up to the family physician to help the wife. There are no free mental health counselling services available. Often, former spouses face financial losses, have nowhere to live and can only afford legal aid, which is totally unreliable.
Unfortunately, medication dependency such as benzodiazepines and suicidal ideations become a major problem. In one case, we asked Veterans Emergency Transition Services Canada, which is VETS Canada, for housing assistance. In another case, the ex-spouse moved from house to house until she became a senior so that she could get assisted housing. When children are involved, the matter becomes even more complex.
Veterans Affairs Canada only provides mental health treatment to family members when the veteran's treatment or rehabilitation plan has established that doing so will achieve a positive outcome for the veteran. The amount of treatment a family member gets varies from case to case. Children over the age of 25 are not eligible for mental health treatment from Veterans Affairs. I have adult children in my practice who have serious mental health issues and are not able to receive treatment. These mental health issues can be traced back to deployments that the fathers made over 25 years ago.
One patient is both physically and mentally ill. The father has PTSD that arose from these deployments. One child started becoming both physically and mentally ill when the father returned. His mother and he were receiving mental health counselling, which was pulled when the son of a veteran who murdered a police officer was found to be receiving counselling in prison. This caused a review and tightening of the policy. The family has never been able to get further treatment via VAC.
Veterans who have an occupational stress injury and other mental health injuries are often very difficult to live with. They become verbally and physically abusive, drink, hide in the basement and ruminate. The whole family walks on eggshells when the veteran is upset. Veterans who are ill will try to avoid any contact with the outside world. One veteran has multiple cameras outside his house. He is on constant surveillance. One spouse, who was not a patient, came to see me to try to get her husband to stop verbally abusing her in public. This is difficult to deal with. How do you treat the situation, the wife and the husband and not trigger further consequences? I wish this spouse could have received mental health services via VAC. One of these situations got very much out of hand with weapons and a two-day standoff with the police. The situation was diffused with speaking [Technical difficulty—Editor].
One of the spouses reminded me that, when a military member serves, the whole family serves. The veteran says, “These aren't my medals; these are my family's medals.”
Veterans Affairs has made advances in mental health treatment for veterans and for families of those with OSI injuries. These moves are very important. The only problem here is, how do you get to these services? You need a case manager. How do you get a veteran into an OSI clinic? You need a case manager.
I used to be able to call a case manager to help any veteran, but not anymore. They are a rare breed. If veterans with recognized OSI injuries can get help, what about all of the other veterans' families who don't have a case manager? What is there to offer their spouses, caregivers and children, who need help?
Supports and services, including mental health services for veterans, caregivers and families, can be done. The system just needs to be tweaked a bit.
Mr. Chair, and members of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs, thank you for having taken the time to listen to me today.
If you have any questions, I will do my very best to answer them.