Veterans Affairs committee  I was listening to an address by Martha Piper, who was talking about the change in communication styles. I think one of the things that occupational therapists are doing very differently is distance treatment through telehealth--using a lot of different forms of communication to

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. Occupational therapists are trained in both mental health and physical medicine. I think what's important is the model of practice they come from. I'll give you the simplified version of the model: the person, the environment, and the occupation, or t

Veterans Affairs committee  In reality, are our occupational therapists well prepared? Absolutely. More important is the lens through which they look at the person--all the environments they interact with, all the roles they must play, and all the things they must do to have a wellness within that role.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think there has been a real expanded role for occupational therapy within the forces and they are working very hard to expand the numbers. We were very privileged to meet with the Surgeon General, Commodore Jung, and he was talking about putting an occupational therapist in his

Veterans Affairs committee  We're just beginning that conversation.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think one of the things we've been debating a lot is the very young age of many of the veterans and the costs associated with them and that the cost of the lump sum should not be mistaken for rehabilitation. They need to have rehabilitation programs above and beyond. There are

Veterans Affairs committee  Do you want to go on that one, or should I?

Veterans Affairs committee  There are a couple of things I'd certainly like to address. One of them is proactivity. Particularly as military personnel are moving from active duty to VAC, there is a need at the beginning to look proactively at the roles they play in their lives to make sure those roles are c

Veterans Affairs committee  Evidence in the civilian literature would suggest that would be very effective in the military, so you have to look from both sides. It hasn't occurred in the military yet, but certainly the education that goes along with the kinds of stress management, the kinds of dealing, the

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  From my perspective, it's that return-to-work connection. The project at Valcartier clearly demonstrated that if you can reintegrate people during the time they're experiencing the OSI injury or the PTSD, if you can start and work with them right on the bases where they reintegra

Veterans Affairs committee  From the perspective of where I work in the community, I think you have to get the information out there that it's okay to seek help, and I think there's a disconnect happening because of the image that many of these young folks who I meet on the street have about what their role

Veterans Affairs committee  The veteran is not getting some of the things, such as the stress management techniques and the return-to-work programs, so that they're reintegrated into the units or into new jobs. Those are the kinds of things we're suggesting need to be added to the services they can already

Veterans Affairs committee  Just to be very clear, we are part of the teams in providing, in many places, direct service. One of our recommendations is that if we were to be part of the early planning stage and used more regularly at that point, some of the decisions might be different and some of the resu