Evidence of meeting #6 for Veterans Affairs in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was jason.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Alana Hirtle Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
That was one of my questions. How do you know where the right place is?
Transition Trainer, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, As an Individual
It's through research.
Transition Trainer, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, As an Individual
Yes, it is.
In Jason's case, he wouldn't have told you, “Oh, this is my chain of command. Go talk to him.” He wouldn't have done that, but he would have told you where he was. He was with the 30th.
Transition Trainer, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, As an Individual
We also have many different groups. We have transition advisers, who are there to guide the member who's being released. We have the release section. We have service coordinators if it is a medical release. Everybody has their own area of expertise.
Again, our building is a one-stop shop for releasing members. Whether it's a general or a medical release, we are there for them.
Liberal
Alana Hirtle Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
I'm sure Jason would be really proud of the work you do.
Transition Trainer, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, As an Individual
Ah, he better be.
Liberal
Alana Hirtle Liberal Cumberland—Colchester, NS
I'm sure he is.
In that vein of not being familiar, how important is knowing the right vocabulary, the right terminology, so that they understand that you can relate?
Transition Trainer, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, As an Individual
Yes, they have a different language, for sure. I'm struggling as a civilian to understand this. Sometimes I ask if they can please speak in English so that I understand. Yes, it can be a challenge, but once you get to know them, it's okay.
Transition Trainer, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, As an Individual
That is very important.
Transition Trainer, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, As an Individual
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Marie-France Lalonde
Thank you very much.
Ms. Gaudreau, you have the floor for six minutes.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
I would like to thank the witnesses: What you are doing, revisiting trauma, is never easy. I commend your courage.
My question for you will be a very simple one because I want to give you space to speak. We have a new prime minister and a new minister. You are being listened to, you are heard, you are seen. I would like to give you each a moment to tell us if there is anything specific you would like to discuss. I know what you are going to say in your testimony. I want to give you this opportunity so that we can also include it in our report, so that we can have a bit of hope in our lives.
President, Homes For Heroes Foundation
Thank you so much.
Although there have been great successes and changes in the Canadian Armed Forces, and the formation of the transition centres has been fantastic, there is lots of work to be done.
Culturally we have to change within the Canadian Armed Forces. We obviously heard stories this morning of not being listened to and not being acknowledged.
We find quite often at Homes For Heroes that we're seeing, when we have our veteran residents come in, who have been on the streets sometimes upwards of 10 to 15 years, living rough, living at risk every day, that as simple a thing as navigating Veterans Affairs is insurmountable.
I beg to say that as much as we can make cultural changes within the Canadian Armed Forces, we could look at changing how we operate Veterans Affairs. Just so we're clear, Veterans Affairs caseworkers, the staff, are fantastic. When you can get through to them, they're fantastic, so I'm not taking away from the hard work that's done every single day. But I beg to say, if you have some free time, or an hour or two, try navigating Veterans Affairs website. Make the assumption that you're a veteran looking to get benefits. I'll bet you a million dollars that you'd give up in two minutes.
I can tell a very quick story of a veteran living on the streets in Edmonton, 10 years living at risk, fight or flight every single day, who found his way to Homes For Heroes. Within two weeks our caseworkers, because they're experts—and you really have to be an expert to navigate Veterans Affairs—found out that he had in excess of a quarter of a million dollars in cash payout waiting for him and it had been sitting there since he had left, for over 10 years. He had a full military pension waiting for him, upwards of.... He had been living on the streets at risk for 10 years.
He now owns two homes. One he is renovating for himself, and for one he is a landlord. Here is a perfect example that they don't know, and they need to understand that they have access to benefits and support, but navigating the Veterans Affairs website is ridiculous. I think we have to revamp that.
I would say the one cautionary insight I have is that although the caseworkers at Veterans Affairs are fantastic, they read from a textbook more often than not instead of listening from their heart, so that could change. That's not taking away from the good work they do every day.
Thank you.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Ms. Elms, I don’t have much speaking time left, but I would really like to hear what you have to say.
As an Individual
I will be very quick.
I will stand here as a representative of families, which is kind of on the side but it's not on the side.
I will echo Brad's comments about navigating the Veterans Affairs website and, although the caseworkers are wonderful, as survivors our needs are different and their legislation around our benefits is different. Often it's subtleties that caseworkers who aren't dedicated to survivors don't get. We're told that our earnings loss benefit will be cut off when they don't get cut off, so there are those types of things.
There's also the churn, because as our kids age and go past 18 and then go out of the system and go back into the system for school, and then go out and then go back into the system, getting benefits switched around is onerous. You need to be an expert.
My husband is not here because of his service, and I shouldn't have to be an expert to navigate getting care.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I have 30 seconds left, Ms. Simon. In a few words, what message would you like to convey?
Transition Trainer, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, As an Individual
We must continue openly talking about suicide. Talking about it is not going to make anybody suicidal; it's not contagious, but it's really important. Also, it would be important to accurately document the cause of death in the military, because our son's death was documented as unknown and I had to fight to change it. We should not be hiding it. It's something that is there. Not talking about it is not going to make it go away.
There's addressing the stigma and mockery. Some people still call others who go see therapists on base as doing the walk of shame. People who make comments like that or joke or make fun of people should not just be put in a course to take the course and get a check mark, but maybe make them do volunteer work in this capacity. These are the ones.
I actually have a quick question. Female veterans are two times more likely and male veterans are 1.4 times more likely to die by suicide or attempt suicide than the general population. For younger male veterans, after release in the first two years they attempt suicide, while with female veterans it takes much longer.
Is there any study being done on these statistics? What resources are dedicated to further studying these statistics and investment in programs to tailor to prevention and resources in this case?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Marie-France Lalonde
Ms. Simon, I apologize, but we're going to have to move on.
Just because of the situation for panel number two, we will go to another round right now, and we'll adjust accordingly. We have one person online and our other in-person witness is a little bit delayed. We'll continue, if that's all right with our panellists, because it is past 9:15. I want to make sure that you are available to stay and comfortable to stay.
We will go to Mr. Richards for five minutes.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Airdrie—Cochrane, AB
First of all, thank you, in particular to Sherri and Margit, for your courage in coming and sharing your personal tragedies with us today, because that's the only way we're going to learn how things can be better.
Thank you, Mr. Field, as well for the work that you do to serve the veterans who slip through the cracks. I hope I'll get a chance to ask you a little bit more about that.
I want to start with you, Sherri. I have two questions for you.
You mentioned in your opening remarks that in order to get benefits from VAC for supports that you needed for mental health and therapy and that kind of stuff, you had to switch therapists. This is the kind of thing I hear far too often. I think it goes back to what Brad was saying about the folks at Veterans Affairs having to work from a textbook rather than from their hearts. I really think, if you want my perspective, we need to see more of a client-focused rather than a process-focused situation at Veterans Affairs and the ability to work with the providers who work for you or your family.
I want to get your perspective on that, because you mentioned that you had to switch therapists in order to get that benefit. What difference would it have made for you had you been able to stick with who you were working with? How important is it for someone to be able to have that continuity with someone instead of having to change service providers just to be able to fit into a box?
Conservative