New announcement: THE OPERATIONAL STRESS RECOVERY PROGRAM

THE OPERATIONAL STRESS RECOVERY PROGRAM

EQUINE ASSISTED THERAPY, SPECIALIZED WOMEN'S OSI PROGRAM, FAMILY INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROGRAM

http://www.operationalstressrecovery.ca/

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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.

New announcement: Going Crazy in the Green Machine

Going Crazy in the Green Machine

The Story of Trauma and PTSD among Canada's Veterans by John J. Whelan

http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000013576363

Many Canadians are vaguely aware of the military's steady involvement in overseas operations over the past 20 years. For many soldiers, however, memories of these places torment them daily. They are haunted; they are changed from who they were as proud men and women. How do we support these soldiers to find their way back home? The story of Master Corporal Billy Reardon is an intimate portrayal of his journey from young man to mentally wounded military veteran. We see the world through his eyes as the toll of his deployments mount and as he struggles within the mental health system. We also see him find recovery and reconnection to the military brotherhood along with other veterans. Billy's story raises questions about the roles of front-line leadership and challenges health providers to develop an intimate understanding of military culture as a prerequisite to assisting traumatized veterans and their families.

ohn J. Whelan Author

John Whelan, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who has spent a 20-year career working with serving and retired members of the Canadian Armed Forces. He served in the RCN for nearly nine years during the Cold War years before leaving to attend university. Dr. Whelan completed his dissertation on treatment outcomes for military members with substance abuse and mental health issues and he went on to serve as clinical director for the CAF addiction treatment programs. In 2004, he established a private clinic for the treatment of complex military PTSD and developed a group therapy program for veterans to help foster peer support networks. He continues to conduct outcome-focussed clinical research, advocacy and outreach work, and he is active in several veterans organizations.

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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.

New announcement: Is it too late for Harper to mend fences with veterans?

Is it too late for Harper to mend fences with veterans?

By Tasha Kheiriddin | Nov 20, 2014 8:59 pm

http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/11/20/is-it-too-late-for-harper-to-mend-fences-with-veterans/

In September, the Department of National Defense published some shocking statistics. Between 2002 and 2014, 138 soldiers were killed in combat in Afghanistan. During the same period, 160 military personnel committed suicide.

The fact that more servicemen and women were dying of suicide than enemy action prompted outrage across the country, and umbrage on Parliament Hill. Defence Minister Rob Nicholson defended the government's record, saying that it had increased the military's mental health budget by $11 million to $50 million a year. Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino exhorted "… everyone … who think(s) someone may be suffering from mental health conditions to seek the professional assistance they need right away."

Fast forward to November 20 … and some more shocking numbers. During the period 2006-2013, $1.1 billion that had been budgeted for Veterans Affairs was returned by the department to the federal treasury. A third of the money was sent back between 2011-2013, a period when the government was actively reducing the national deficit. That exercise was a success, leaving a healthy surplus which has now been allocated to income-splitting, among other things.

Cue the outrage, part two. Some of the families of vets who committed suicide may well be asking themselves — what if? What if some of that money had been spent on their loved ones? What if more programs to help combat the ravages of PTSD or other injuries had been available?

Other veterans will probably also have their own what-ifs — not on questions of life and death, but of dignity and respect. In January 2014, the government announced the closure of nine Veterans Affairs offices, replacing them with 650 "points of service" at Service Canada centres. Veterans complained that the face-to-face, specialized offices served them far better than the general Service Canada offices, accessible by a 1-800 number, and protests erupted across the country.

Adding insult to injury, Fantino showed up over an hour late to a meeting with veterans opposed to the closures — and proceeded to get into a verbal brawl with some of them.

The notion of a veterans group engaged in an outright political assault on a Tory government would have been unthinkable just a few years ago — but the accumulated weight of the cuts and the cockups has enraged a constituency that once was Conservative bedrock.

Then there was the Day of Honour for Afghanistan veterans on May 9 in Ottawa. It was a great idea — paying tribute to those who served in Canada's mission there — undermined once again by God-awful government messaging. In the lead-up to the event, the government sent the families of fallen soldiers an invitation that included this callous line: "Should your schedule allow it, your attendance would be at your own expense."

So what should have been a tribute to our soldiers' achievements and courage turned into a sordid dustup over who should pay for plane tickets. The Tories claimed the letter had been sent "in error" and announced the costs would be covered, in part by sponsors such as the True Patriot Love Foundation and Air Canada.

Finally, while this past Remembrance Day was particularly notable for its solemnity, it also saw an escalation of hostilities between many veterans and the Harper government. The Canada Coalition for Veterans plans to actively campaign against the Conservatives in the next election and threatens to protest ribbon-cuttings, ceremonies and the like.

What's remarkable about all this is how quickly the relationship between veterans and the federal government degenerated. The notion of a veterans group engaged in an outright political assault on a Tory government would have been unthinkable just a few years ago — but the accumulated weight of the cuts and the cockups has enraged a constituency that once was Conservative bedrock.

To be fair, the Tories have been on a deficit-cutting bent since 2011 for several reasons — not all of them political. There's an expectation that governments balance the books, and they promised to do so by 2015. The government could not bring in other promised measures, such as income-splitting, until the deficit was gone. And nobody wants to run an election campaign with the balance still in the red. They racked up the deficit in the wake of the financial crisis; failing to balance the books would be a failure of economic stewardship, and would damage the image of sound fiscal management.

Now, however, that same frugality is damaging their image among a key constituency. It's irony of a sort: In pleasing one part of their base with the Family Tax Cut, the Tories have managed to alienate another by pinching pennies in Veterans' Affairs.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul doesn't work if Peter gets wind of it — or if lives are literally on the line.

Tasha Kheiriddin is a political writer and broadcaster who frequently comments in both English and French. In her student days, Tasha was active in youth politics in her hometown of Montreal, eventually serving as national policy director and then president of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation of Canada. After practising law and a stint in the government of Mike Harris, Tasha became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and co-wrote the 2005 bestseller, Rescuing Canada's Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution. Tasha moved back to Montreal in 2006 and served as vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute, and later director for Quebec of the Fraser Institute, while also lecturing on conservative politics at McGill University. Tasha now lives in Whitby, Ontario with her daughter Zara, born in 2009.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author's alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.

Over $1.1 billion in unspent funds at Veterans Affairs since 2006: documents

Over $1.1 billion in unspent funds at Veterans Affairs since 2006: documents

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/over-1-1-billion-unspent-funds-veterans-affairs-230110146.html

OTTAWA - Veterans Affairs Canada has returned $1.13 billion to the federal treasury in unspent funds since the Conservatives came to power in 2006 — cash that critics say should have gone towards improved benefits and services.

The figure, which surfaced this week in the House of Commons, has led to renewed criticism of the Harper government, which is already smarting over its frayed relations with disgruntled former soldiers.

Data tabled in the House in response to a written question shows roughly one-third of the so-called lapsed funds were handed back between the 2011 and 2013 budget years when the government was engaged in a massive deficit-cutting drive.

The Conservatives often trumpet how much the budget for veterans care has gone up under their watch — right now it's about $3.4 billion a year, up from $2.8 billion when the Tories took office.

What they don't say is that anywhere between 4.7 per cent and 8.2 per cent of the total allocation has been allowed to lapse because of the department's inability or reluctance to spend it all, said NDP veterans critic Peter Stoffer.

Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino met Wednesday in Quebec City with select organizations representing ex-soldiers, but some of the loudest critics of the department's spending on benefits and services were not invited.

On Tuesday, Stoffer put a pointed question about the lapsed funds to Fantino, who answered by tallying up the government's total spending on the veteran's department — roughly $30 billion since 2006.

"It means improved rehabilitation for Canadian veterans," Fantino said. "It means more counselling for veterans' families. It means more money for veterans' higher education and retraining. It means we care deeply about our veterans."

But that didn't answer the question of why so much of the budget has been allowed to lapse, said Stoffer, noting that the overall budget of the department is something the government is committed to under the law.

The use of lapsed funding to reduce the federal deficit is an exercise that's being practised across all departments, he added.

"The deputy ministers ... have obviously been told by the higher-ups that, 'This money has to come back to us in order for us to have our books balanced, and that way we can use that money for other purposes, like income-splitting.'"

Over the last two fiscal years, all federal departments allowed more than $18 billion in budgeted funding to lapse, according public accounts figures released at the end of October.

Frank Valeriote, the Liberal veterans critic, said ex-soldiers who've been denied benefits will look at the unspent funds and feel "hoodwinked, completely abandoned" and wonder why they've made sacrifices for their country.

"It is reprehensible and unconscionable what they're doing so that the government can create an image of fiscal responsibility," he said.

The Quebec City meeting came on Wednesday at a time when multiple Conservative sources say there is concern that the party's reliable support in the veterans community is bleeding away because of the loud and prolonged battle.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, say there is growing frustration within the party over Fantino's apparent inability to forge positive relationships with veterans, unlike his predecessor, Steven Blaney.

Beyond veterans, long considered a natural constituency for Conservatives, there are signs the Tories are in trouble with ordinary Canadians on the issue. A newly released internal poll on public perceptions of the Canadian Forces suggests the treatment of veterans was registering strongly with respondents.

"Problems that veterans face (42 per cent) and soldiers returning home (29 per cent) were top of mind for many Canadians when asked what they recalled about the (Canadian Armed Forces)," said the Phoneix Strategies Perspectives survey, conducted last May, but released by National Defence online this week.

The survey of 2,025 people found more than two-thirds (67 per cent) of those asked recalled recently seeing, reading, or hearing about issues faced by returning soldiers or their families.

That's a significant increase over 48 per cent of respondents to a similar poll conducted in 2012.

Follow @Murray_Brewster on Twitter

Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.

http://canadianveteransadvocacy.com/Board2/index.php

New announcement: Veterans versus Harper in 2015/ A full chapter from "Party of One"

The final front: Veterans versus Harper in 2015/ A full chapter from "Party of One" by Michael Harris (12 pages)

http://www.ipolitics.ca/author/mharris/

The final front: Veterans versus Harper in 2015
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/11/13/the-final-front-veterans-versus-harper-in-2015/

Monument-lovers were impressed with all that pomp. But what about the people at the centre of this carefully orchestrated exercise in emotional crowd-control — the living veterans? What are they doing?

Are they cheering their closet commander? Are they mistaking jingoism for patriotism — as so many are these days, including quite a few people in the media? Have they chosen marketing over information?

They have not. In fact, the veterans are here not to praise Caesar but to bury him. That's why veterans Ron Clarke and Mike Blais have launched an Anybody But Conservative campaign to rally opposition against the government in time for the election., Those who have been watching the veterans's file closely on Harper's watch — rather than listening to the Top Gun drivel being dished out by the PM — know that a national disgrace has been unfolding in Canada. While the Harper government has been a great little military monument-builder ($50 million added to that budget), it has abandoned the flesh-and-blood veterans who came back from war needing help.

[snip]

*
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2014/11/11/delay-deny-and-die-the-harper-government-and-veterans/

Delay, deny and die: The Harper government and veterans
By Michael Harris | Nov 11, 2014

We're proud to present a chapter from iPolitics' columnist Michael Harris's bestselling book about the Harper majority government, Party of One. In the following chapter, Harris describes how budget-cutting and bad messaging put Stephen Harper's government on a collision course with Canada's veterans as the Afghan war was winding down.

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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.

New announcement: Injured Ottawa military personnel to wait longer for help (JPSU)

Injured Ottawa military personnel to wait longer for help

David Pugliese More from David Pugliese
Published on: November 5, 2014Last Updated: November 6, 2014 5:47 PM EST

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/injured-ottawa-military-personnel-to-wait-longer-for-help

Injured soldiers in Ottawa will have to wait longer for help because the centre providing them assistance has lost a number of key members, according to a Canadian military document obtained by the Citizen.

Soldiers with more urgent cases, including those dealing with post-traumatic stress illnesses, are being told to call 9-1-1 or visit the Montfort Hospital.

The message was issued last week and sent to the Citizen by soldiers concerned that injured military personnel aren't being provided with the proper treatment.

In his message, Navy Lt. Adam Winchester, platoon commander for Integrated Personnel Support Centre Ottawa, said that there would be changes because of the loss of two of the four section commanders who assist more than 225 injured military personnel.

"Two of our Section Commanders have recently left the IPSC to pursue other opportunities," he wrote. "To that end, members assigned to these individuals will be re-assigned to our two remaining Section Commanders until we find suitable replacements."

"As you can imagine, tempo at IPSC(O) has rapidly increased," Winchester added.

He noted that IPSC Ottawa is one of the busiest such centres in Canada.

The military created the Integrated Personnel Support Centres across the country to offer programs to support and enable mentally and physically injured troops to resume their military careers or, more likely, to be "transitioned out" into the civilian world with sellable skills and jobs to go to.

Staff shortages at such centres have been an ongoing problem, despite the assurances from the military that the system is working fine.

Winchester outlined in his email how the Ottawa centre will operate. He stated that walk-in patients "will be seen eventually, but may not take priority. If you have an emergency or are in distress, please contact 9-1-1 or visit the Montfort Hospital."

For non-urgent requests, injured military personnel can expect a three- to four-week wait.

"For urgent matters (which is ultimately determined at the Regional Level who handle over 500 members), your requests could take up to two weeks," Winchester stated.

The Department of National Defence noted in an email to the Citizen that one of the two vacant positions is expected to be filled by a contract worker starting in early December.

The other vacancy will be staffed by a reservist, DND added. "There has been no impact on services to personnel," according to the DND email.

Soldiers and former soldiers told the Citizen last year that too many IPSC staffers were overloaded, badly trained, ill-suited to the work and often unsympathetic toward the troops they are paid to help.

Injured soldiers posted into such centres complained of being left to their own devices and unsupervised for long periods.

In November 2013, then-Canadian Forces ombudsman Pierre Daigle warned in a report that there were problems at the military's Joint Personnel Support Unit (JPSU), the umbrella group overseeing the centres. The ombudsman noted that there were "acute" staff shortages, leaving those tasked with helping the most damaged Afghan war veterans overworked, often inadequately trained, and in danger of burnout.

The ombudsman recommended increased staffing, better training for all staff, "resilience" training for staff and preparing for "emerging trends" – such as an expected increase in mentally injured soldiers needing help.

"It is essential to staff the JPSU with the appropriate number of personnel, to ensure that these personnel possess the necessary experience and competencies and to support them with suitable training," Daigle said at the time.

dpugliese@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/davidpugliese

CVA would like to hear your story if you are at this JPSU. Please send your info to:info@canadianveteransadvocacy.com

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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.

New announcement: Veterans’ complaints a tricky issue for Harper

Veterans' complaints a tricky issue for Harper

CAMPBELL CLARK

Ottawa — The Globe and Mail

Last updated Sunday, Nov. 09 2014, 10:53 PM EST

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/veterans-complaints-a-tricky-issue-for-harper/article21517673/?service=mobile

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper attends Remembrance Day ceremonies Tuesday, he will have cut short his attendance at an international summit in China to pay tribute. Yet for an increasingly vocal set of this nation's veterans, he is guilty of paying too little attention to those who served.

His government has lionized Canadian military symbols, and sent equipment to troops in Afghanistan. Many Conservative MPs care; many see veterans as part of their natural constituency. So why did Mr. Harper's government become a target for veterans? How did its image instead become Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino lecturing a medal-wearing vet not to point his finger, or dodging a veteran's wife?

The answer depends on whom you ask – and that's perhaps how things went wrong.

Many veterans say they don't have big complaints. But a minority, notably among those with serious injuries – often newer veterans clashing with the Veterans Affairs bureaucracy – feel mistreated. And there's a new crop of vocal advocates, too, who often think the big traditional groups like the Royal Canadian Legion, are not speaking out for seriously injured vets. The new breed are far more blunt.

Mike Blais, of Canadian Veterans Advocacy, regularly blasts the government on TV. Injured Afghan vets formed Equitas to sue the government for "arbitrary, substandard, and inadequate" benefits. Mr. Fantino meets many of them, but Don Leonardo, who founded Veterans Canada, doesn't see much point any more. "It's nice to talk. But show me some action," Mr. Leonardo said.

Mr. Fantino's office didn't act on requests to interview the minister or a government spokesman on the issue. But inside the government, officials suggest the complaints are exaggerated, and promoted by a small group of activists. Budgets have gone up, they note, and in fact, during Mr. Harper's tenure, spending on Veterans Affairs has increased at about the same rate as overall government spending. But there's little doubt it has become a tricky issue.

This year's Remembrance Day has become a particularly top-of-mind memorial after the Ottawa shootings and the death of Corporal Nathan Cirillo as he guarded the National War Memorial. This government wants it that way, and wants to be associated with the country's military community.

Now, Mr. Harper's government has appointed a Mr. Fix-It in the form of the country's former Chief of Defence Staff, retired General Walter Natynczyk. He has stature in Ottawa, credibility with the military community and was part of Afghanistan-war-era efforts to expand support programs for military families.

That could be critical, because the experience of injured Afghanistan vets has certainly fuelled current criticism.

As troops in 2008 or 2009, many felt support from the public. But those who are injured go from being "members" of the Forces to "clients" of Veterans Affairs. Forces' members go through a medical board when they're released because of an injury, then a new one when they apply to Veterans Affairs, Mr. Leonardo said.

The case workers at Veterans Affairs Canada care, he said. "It's not the front line. They're the most caring people in the world. The problem is the policies, the bureaucracy at the top, the funding."

Much of the anger grew from the New Veterans Charter, put forward by Paul Martin's Liberals and tweaked by Mr. Harper's Conservatives. It was supposed to be a new deal, but sparked complaints, particularly about lump-sum settlements injured vets received instead of pensions.

Part of the problem for the government is that different veterans advocates propose different prescriptions for change to a complex system. But many say they're frustrated that oft-repeated consensus recommendations – such as increasing the earning-loss benefits, and paying reservists the same level of injury benefits as regular-force soldiers – have languished.

The Commons veterans affairs committee repeated those again this year, but the government's response doesn't say what it will do about them or when. The government did promise to phase in several changes, such as ensuring Forces' members have a Veterans Affairs case manager before they are released, but couched many of their promises to act in thick bafflegab.

Pat Stogran, the retired colonel who served as the first Veterans Ombudsman from 2007 to 2010, said the problem, in his view, stems from the fact that senior bureaucrats run Veterans Affairs like an insurance company, "just trying to write these people off as an industrial accident," rather than an agency to help vets, he said.

And the politicians don't have a lot of drive to delve through the bureaucracy. Veterans Affairs ministers don't have much power, he said. They usually don't argue with their bureaucrats' assessment, they are concerned mainly with party politics. "They're really non-players in this. They're fighting the opposition," he said.

It also seems possible that the fact that complaints come from a minority of veterans with problem cases, the government accepts the idea that, for the most part, things are okay.

Mr. Stogran said it's not all vets who feel unfairly treated. Most leave to go on with their lives. The hard cases, and complaints, come among the disadvantaged after being put in harm's way. "No, it's not the majority. It's the ones who are injured, or have a close affinity to them."

Follow Campbell Clark on Twitter: @camrclark

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Regards,
The Canadian Veterans Advocacy Team.