To the Editor:
The federal government’s decision to invest $200 million more in mental healthcare for Canada’s veterans is tacit admission that the Conservatives have been giving this distinguished group short shrift until now. Why the sudden change of heart?
The need for more effort is hard to deny when you consider that 128 members of the regular forces and 32 reservists have committed suicide in the past decade, according to statistics from the military.
But it’s not just soldier and ex-soldiers who have chosen to take their own lives. It is also those who labour on with deep emotional wounds. A Statistics Canada survey released in September suggested that nearly one in six full-time members of the Canadian Forces experienced symptoms of mental health or alcohol-related disorders over several months in 2013. Of the 6,700 full-time members of the Canadian Forces surveyed from April to August 2013, the most common disorder reported was a major depressive episode, with 8 per cent of full-time members reporting symptoms in the 12 months prior to the survey.
The government’s announcement of new funding came as a bit of surprise to me because it came shortly after I received a note from a Calgary MP, taking me to task for a column I wrote back in February. I wrote then, in part:
For years now, our soldiers have been getting shoddy treatment from the country that asked them to put their lives on the line. Those who served in the Second World War or the Korean conflict are getting near to the end of their days. Younger soldiers who saw action in Kandahar are just now dealing with lives of pain and mental anguish that have driven too many of them to suicide.”
I didn’t hear from the feds until Nov. 22, when I received a polite by pointed email from the MP, who in a past life was a professional associate of mine. Expressing disappointment in my comments, the MP wrote: “In fact there are more mental health programs for members and veterans of the military than there have ever been before in Canadian history and Can-ada has among the best programs in all of NATO.”
It certainly did not appear than any changes were imminent. Did someone get their wires crossed?
One day after I got that email, however, the federal government announced its $200-million program. “More must be done to combat mental illness in support of the Canadian Forces,” explained Defence Minister Rob Nicholson. An additional $16.7 million in funds will be available to support members of the Forces, veterans and their families.
The MP who wrote me alleged that the severity of the suicide problem is exaggerated by the media practice of not reporting on suicides among the general public, while widely reporting on most military suicides. “This creates a false perception that suicides are a problem only in the military and does those in the military a great disservice. There is no question that suicides are a serious problem in the general population. There are about 3,500 suicides per year, according to a 2011 study. But the theory of media exaggeration of the military problem is challenged by data compiled by Statistics Canada. Those data show the rate of suicide in former military personnel was 46 per cent higher for males and 32 per cent higher for females than in the civilian population.
It’s been widely reported that many veterans are not impressed with the feds. And then Veterans Affairs suffered another black eye this week when Auditor General Michael Ferguson issued a damning report. He found there are too many barriers to veterans getting mental-health services and benefits. The application process is too complex, he said, and that causes delays in getting their records from the Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces.
All these statistics confirm what veterans already know - they haven’t been getting the support they need. This week’s announcement is a welcome change, but it also feels a bit like a government making a last minute effort to shore up its tarnished image before it goes to polls in the new year.
It’s hard to imagine that these gestures will turn the tide. Bitter veterans have had to wait too long .Doug Firby is Editor-in-Chief and national affairs columnist for Troy Media.
