Good morning to all.
Thank you for the invitation to attend this important hearing on the experiences of indigenous veterans and Black veterans.
I'm MaryAnn Notarianni, the deputy CEO at Atlas Institute for Veterans and Families.
I recognize that many of you are familiar with who we are, but just to recap, we were stood up a few years ago by Veterans Affairs Canada as an arm's-length organization to improve the mental health and well-being of Canadian veterans and their families. We do this through conducting and funding research, developing resources to educate and inform, building capacity among mental health service providers, and convening stakeholders to reduce silos, share knowledge and advance collaborative work. Relevant to this study, we take an intersectional approach across our work and strive to be inclusive of diverse veterans and families, including indigenous veterans and Black and racialized veterans and their families.
I wish to applaud this committee for its work on this file, as we too recognize this as a gap that requires attention.
I'd like to highlight the minority mosaic study, led by our clinical research team in partnership with the LGBT Purge Fund, which explores how experiences of discrimination and oppression based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender impact mental health outcomes. It looks at how multiple interconnected identity factors interact and how the stress tied to these identities influences mental health.
To inform some of our direction early on, we commissioned a research and knowledge gap analysis to identify research gaps and knowledge needs specific to PTSD and related mental health conditions. There was a significant gap in the research for specific veteran subpopulations, such as women, Black people, indigenous people and people of colour and, notably, gaps in research around treatment interventions for these groups.
We've now embarked on a new priority-setting process to inform organizational priorities for the next few years. Eight distinct priority areas have emerged. Two of these areas of focus include under-represented populations, including women, indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, racialized and disabled veterans, and equitable access and delivery of care for veterans and their families.
My colleague, Gabrielle Dupuis, director of research partnerships, will now discuss two initiatives relevant to your study.