Public Safety committee  I have probably a couple of comments. One was that we did take a look at the incidence of suicide among paramedics and compared it to that for the general population. I'm not sure I'm answering your question directly, but the rate of paramedic suicide was over and above that of

Public Safety committee  I work with the City of Ottawa, and that's been an interesting recognition or kind of alarm bell that's gone off internally within the city. I think it's true across the country that EAPs, employee assistance programs, are really set up for—and please don't take it the wrong way—

Public Safety committee  I can speak to that. Just in the last two years or so, we've been revising the knowledge, skills, and abilities of paramedics and paramedic education, and that's been one of the focuses of the renewal of our body of knowledge and the training programs. So yes, I would say that ne

Public Safety committee  I would concur with that. That term is stigmatizing. As much as we talk about the initiatives through Bell's Let's Talk and Clara Hughes, we have to reduce the stigma. By actually attaching this label, we've actually probably done a disservice to the broader sense of mental healt

Public Safety committee  I think there's an awareness through several issues and I know from Let's Talk through Bell that there is a problem out there, but I don't think it's known necessarily that well within the community. I look at the approximately 40,000 paramedics in the country. Their training rea

Public Safety committee  Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to talk about the health and well-being of paramedics in Canada. I'd like to frame our discussion in terms of what the Paramedic Association of Canada is and isn't, and to talk a little bit about menta

Health committee  Thank you. With respect to paramedics and their role, and expanding that, I think there's very much an opportunity with respect to rural and remote areas. You've probably heard from different professions that the rural and remote communities are oftentimes the least served by ou

Health committee  Thank you. I will start by answering the first question about non-emergency care, outpatient care. It's important to note that there have been a number of initiatives. Probably the most recent one—it's been going on for several years in Toronto—is called the community referral

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Pierre Poirier, and I am the executive director for the Paramedic Association of Canada. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I have a few notes, and hopefully I'll be brief, in recognizing the time of day. In some ways the short ans