Hi, my name is Tina Fitzpatrick. My husband is Rod, and he's an 18-year combat veteran with two tours overseas. We've been together for 30 years, and we'll be married for 25 years in July.
Rod was always a very hands-on daddy to our girls. We have two wonderful daughters, 23 and 19. Our 23-year-old daughter was a competitive swimmer all over Newfoundland for seven years, and our 19-year-old daughter is a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do and has competed at the national level. However, their dad has never seen them compete. He was suicidal in our basement for the majority of their very young lives.
In 1992, Rod deployed to Croatia, where I believe he was exposed to the worst trauma. At the time, I did not know my husband would return a different man. Flash forward to 2002, and now my husband's mental state is slowly degrading to the point where he's having suicidal thoughts daily. Canadian Forces were no help in his ongoing mental health crisis. Their answer was to go to a civilian hospital. Canadian Forces sent my husband home with nothing, not even his own personal things from the locker on base. In his words, “Such service no longer requires”.
After a year of being home with zero guidance, they medically discharged him. Then we returned to Newfoundland so we could be close to family. The next 17 years would be an absolute battle with Veterans Affairs, starting with the complete lack of professional help through psychologists and psychiatrists. We had no idea about mental illness on a personal or cultural level. Medical intervention was critical at this point, as his downward spiral continued in front of my eyes.
Here's just a glimpse into my daily battle for 10 years. I call Veterans Affairs almost daily, always speaking to someone different, each time having to start my story from scratch. These calls were for prescriptions, doctors' visits, assessment after assessment and being summoned to Veterans Affairs to sit around a large table full of doctors in white coats asking the most absurd questions. Each of these appointments ended, and this was extremely tough on Rod.... Each time the psychologist said he needed in-hospital treatment, this would result in a several-month-long approval process, and he was hospitalized three times for up to six months at a time, always out-of-province, away from our family.
In trying to navigate programs and benefits, first of all, you had to figure out yourself what was available and what he qualified for. It was like pulling teeth, There was no access to what was available, and we had to rely on rumour mills to figure out any programs that could help. This reality was extremely frustrating to deal with, everything was a fight. “No” was the final answer, even though I was crying and pleading for help while my husband was suicidal in our basement and our two little ones were running around my feet. I'm begging and pleading with them to help, but no, they don't.
Now, it's July 2018. I made a call to Veterans Affairs to see if there were any bursaries available, as our daughter was heading to nationals. The girl who answered the phone asked me why Rod had not applied for his ELB—earnings loss benefit—and I told her he did not qualify because Rod had already done rehab. Then she informed me that was not how it works, so she helped me apply. I really didn't think much about it, but about six weeks later, I get a letter saying that Rod did qualify and it was an extra $1,000 a month. What? This benefit came out in 2006. We could have used that money in 2006.
Next, I'm on Signal Hill, it's September 2018 and it's an event where the then minister of veterans affairs, Seamus O'Regan, and the head of Veterans Affairs danced across the stage stating that retroactivity was back on the table. This is a “yes” Veterans Affairs. Then I met with Seamus O'Regan in his office, where I proceeded to tell him about my treatment by Veterans Affairs, and he said someone would be on Rod's file right away.
That was in 2018, I just heard back from his office February 2021 after hundreds of phone calls. They informed me the ELB is not retroactive, but they wanted to try to get some kind of compensation. In April 2021, they are now saying that it's a he said, she said, so my best option is to sue the government, the very government Rod served and protected.
The bureaucracy that has been put in place by the empire builders within the Canadian government has created an atmosphere where Veterans Affairs might as well speak a foreign language. The ability to navigate the multiple levels within the bureaucracy has made it almost impossible to avail of services and benefits.
All of these battles to get my husband, who was medically released, from 30% of his pension to 100% of his pension took six years. In my humble opinion, the very institution put in place to take care of our veterans is eating them alive.
Thank you for your time.