Hello. My name is Phillip Lopresti. I want to express my appreciation for the invitation and opportunity to speak to the entire committee today. Thank you.
As some of you may already know, I was involved in the play Contact! Unload, which is a performance that brings to life the personal stories of veterans returning home and the difficulties they face when transitioning back to civilian life. While I am currently serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, I am appearing today as an individual in a civilian capacity to speak about my experiences as a postgraduate student at the University of British Columbia and my role in Contact! Unload. As such, I would like to advise the committee that I will not be commenting on my work in the Canadian Armed Forces given my junior rank.
I would now like to take this opportunity to further explain the play and its impacts.
The personal stories and invaluable data that emerged from the making of Contact! Unload are not just my own. Instead, they represent the shared experiences of countless brave service personnel who have devoted themselves to protecting the interests of their country and the well-being of its citizens. The moving scenes and dialogue of the play not only illustrate the struggles of military service and the difficulties transitioning back to civilian life, but also set the stage for the surfacing of more nuanced issues that have eluded public awareness for decades.
Contact! Unload allowed audience members, educators, practitioners and anyone who would bear witness a gateway into the lived experiences of our veterans and those of many other allied nations. Service personnel are exposed to trauma at significantly greater levels than the general population. By the nature of their work, these individuals are likely to be involved in extreme conditions that impact their physical, psychological and emotional states. This occurs through responding to a wide array of emergencies, both foreign and domestic. These soldiers will encounter repeated instances of human suffering, death and danger at levels greater than the general population, which increases their risk of PTSD and other mental health issues due to their duty-related exposures—if not by way of active duty, then simply via the mechanisms necessary to live and operate within the military.
The needs of the military place a great amount of pressure on its members to conform to and adopt a particular way of thinking and operating. While this mindset may allow its adopters to succeed within the military, it also creates barriers to transitioning back to civilian life when a soldier's military career has ended. Literature in this field suggests that military professionals are in a subgroup that, to a large extent, endures frequent negative outcomes that impact key areas of functioning and quality of life. Additionally, individuals with work-related PTSD are consistently challenged by poor long-term work outcomes, their careers often marred by extensive stress and sick leave, decreased work productivity and early retirement or unemployment.
In relation to how mental health professionals can best support this demographic, it is important to understand that these personnel, regardless of gender orientation, tend to endorse hypermasculine gender roles related to military discipline culture. This key factor exacerbates how they experience stigma. While the endorsement of some traditional forms of military ethos and culture has some positive aspects, it is also associated with a host of problematic issues, such as poor self-esteem, reduced interpersonal intimacy, depression and anxiety. Those who endorse these ideals are often left in a double bind such that if they successfully subscribe to these unrealistic and contradictory hypermasculine ideologies, they may in turn limit their coping repertoires, often by resisting help. If they deviate from the masculine norms, they often expect to be harshly judged or socially ostracized.
When these gender role violations occur, the resulting strain can be experienced as so overwhelmingly unpleasant that many compensate by subscribing even more rigidly to these unrealistic ideals. This is problematic, as a growing body of research suggests there's a strong association between the degree to which individuals endorse dominant masculine ideologies and poor health behaviours. Avoidance of therapy is one of these behaviours. When undertaken, it often involves disclosing weakness or problems, which for many is threatening to their identity as a soldier and may promote further emotional isolation.
While Contact! Unload did not attempt to correct these risk factors directly, its context was extremely effective in highlighting the difficulties that veterans face in dropping their military identities and reintegrating into civilian life. I am proud of my involvement in this project as a researcher, actor and advocate. I am happy to have had the opportunity to share with all of you a small amount of what I witnessed through my involvement.
Thank you again so much for this opportunity to appear before you. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Chair.