Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. It's an honour to speak with you today about the National Case Management Network of Canada in relation to the work of this Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs. I've reviewed the evidence presented at the first session, on May 8, as you

Veterans Affairs committee  You're the researcher, Nancy.

Veterans Affairs committee  The road of credentialing is probably the path we're going down, right?

Veterans Affairs committee  We've established standards of practice and are currently working on core competencies, all with the intent of identifying a credentialing process. As for who would want a credentialing process, maybe an employer, or maybe an individual. That's the process we're going down....

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  Case management today is not a profession. Case management is a process, and it's a role. It is not a profession. In my day job, I'm a nurse at St. Michael's as a case manager, so I am a professional nurse. I am a regulated health professional in that regard, but there are many

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we had that conversation. I had a webinar yesterday, so we had that discussion. Are we a profession? What are the elements of a profession? One of the elements is having research. Do we have outcomes that show the benefit of this? Nancy is one of the researchers, but we're n

Veterans Affairs committee  That's the next question I've entertained today.... If you have a standard of practice and you have core competencies, of course the next step would be a code of ethics. I'll have to go back to Health Canada—no.... But yes, the next piece to come would be a code of ethics. Then

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct. Also, there's a difference between a college and a profession, because I get that question too. Is NCMN going after a college? That's a whole other level of regulations.

Veterans Affairs committee  We're small but mighty is what we say. We number 500. We represent every province and every territory, as I said, and every sector that I was speaking about. Our current membership comes from the 16 sectors across the health and social services.

Veterans Affairs committee  They are individuals and organizations but primarily individuals. There are more and more organizations. Our largest member organizations in Ontario are the community care access centres. For a second year, the Toronto Central CCAC renewed membership in NCMN for 200 of its front-

Veterans Affairs committee  First of all, that's why they sit on our board. So as a national board representing case management across the country, there is a representative from VAC on our board. They sat with us when we wrote our Canadian standards of practice, so that when we speak to those standards, t

Veterans Affairs committee  It's the future—it's what's required for the health care system across Canada as we all age, as we all live with chronic illness, and as we survive catastrophic injuries. That is not a health care situation that is solved in a period of time or an episode of time. So all of us, m