Evidence of meeting #44 for Veterans Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was research.
A video is available from Parliament.
Director, Research, Department of Veterans Affairs
I don't have that specific information with me, but we can provide it if we have it available.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Okay.
Another issue I've heard a fair bit about is service dogs for veterans who are managing PTSD. It seems they are indicating that dogs are unavailable to them through Veterans Affairs.
Can you tell me if that's accurate? Does Veterans Affairs provide service dogs for those with PTSD or other mental illness injuries?
Director, Research, Department of Veterans Affairs
My understanding is that there are some entitlements related to assistance dogs. I can't say exactly what conditions would entitle a veteran to them. We can come back with that information as well.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
If you can, please do. I'm hearing from veterans and they're saying that it's not done.
I was also curious about service standards for service dogs. There are organizations providing them. I am hearing about that, and I'm hearing that there is a lack of service standards for them.
Do you know if Veterans Affairs provides service standards for service dogs?
Director, Research, Department of Veterans Affairs
I know that Veterans Affairs, prior to 2018, funded an effort to establish national standards for service dogs. Ultimately, bodies that were funded did not successfully establish national standards.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
There are no service standards that came from this. Is that a yes or a no?
Director, Research, Department of Veterans Affairs
Within Canada, I don't believe there are national standards on service dogs.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
That's unfortunate. I hope it's something Veterans Affairs will get to work on.
Thank you.
If there is any time left, I'd be happy to let my Liberal colleagues have it.
Liberal
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Thank you.
I'll go back to a question that I don't think you had a chance to answer. I talked about research across the world on women veterans, as well as in Canada. Maybe you can take a few minutes to answer it.
Director, Research, Department of Veterans Affairs
There are a number of initiatives internationally relating to women veterans. We have collaborations, particularly with our closest allied countries. We have a working group on research that meets regularly and coordinates areas of mutual interest.
We have a number of working groups exploring areas that include occupational exposures and looking at the links between specific occupations in the military and downstream health impacts. That's the one that I think is most relevant to this study. We're looking at bringing in information from DND that will help us identify which occupations or which common occupations are associated with specific conditions. I think that's a critical link in our long-term research planning.
In terms of what we're doing in Canada, I think the one big development we haven't touched on today is the establishment of the Canadian veteran health survey. In the past, we had a health survey called the life after service survey, and it asked about a number of different domains of well-being. That's where many of the findings came from that were quoted in the first hour. It was very instrumental and was the best we could do at the time, starting in 2010. That's when that survey began.
Now that we've had the census in 2021, Statistics Canada is able to survey all Canadian veterans, and we've grown that survey into what we're calling the Canadian veteran health survey. It was administered first in 2022, right out of the gate after the census.
It will bring back information we've never had before. It will have coverage especially for older veterans. It will have broader coverage and more reliable estimates for smaller groups such as women veterans and smaller subpopulations, including LGBTQ2 veterans, for example. It will cover information on a number of different topics, including smoking, cannabis use, opioid use, oral health, maternal health and maternal experiences. Those are all new domains that we haven't been able to ask veterans about in the past.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg
Thank you so much, Mr. Svenson.
Thank you, Mr. Samson.
That is all the time we have for this panel.
On behalf of members of the committee, I would like to thank our witnesses for their input into our study. From the Department of Veterans Affairs, we heard from Nathan Svenson, director of research, by video conference, and from Dr. Lisa Garland Baird, senior researcher, by video conference.
I will also take this opportunity to thank the entire technical team, including the interpreters, the analysts and the clerk.
I know that many veterans and people are also watching us online.
Two of them are here, so I'd like to acknowledge the two veterans who have joined us here in the room to follow our meeting.
The meeting is now adjourned.