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Mental Health of Canadian Veterans: a Family Purpose

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Mental Health of Canadian Veterans: a Family Purpose MENTAL HEALTH OF CANADIAN VETERANS: A FAMILY PURPOSE Report of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs Neil R. Ellis Chair JUNE 2017 42nd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION Published under the authority of the Speaker of the House of Commons SPEAKER’S PERMISSION Reproduction of the proceedings of the House of Commons and its Committees, in whole or in part and in any medium, is hereby permitted provided that the reproduction is accurate and is not presented as official. This permission does not extend to reproduction, distribution or use for commercial purpose of financial gain. Reproduction or use outside this permission or without authorization may be treated as copyright infringement in accordance with the Copyright Act. Authorization may be obtained on written application to the Office of the Speaker of the House of Commons. Reproduction in accordance with this permission does not constitute publication under the authority of the House of Commons. The absolute privilege that applies to the proceedings of the House of Commons does not extend to these permitted reproductions. Where a reproduction includes briefs to a Standing Committee of the House of Commons, authorization for reproduction may be required from the authors in accordance with the Copyright Act. Nothing in this permission abrogates or derogates from the privileges, powers, immunities and rights of the House of Commons and its Committees. For greater certainty, this permission does not affect the prohibition against impeaching or questioning the proceedings of the House of Commons in courts or otherwise. The House of Commons retains the right and privilege to find users in contempt of Parliament if a reproduction or use is not in accordance with this permission. Also available on the Parliament of Canada Web Site at the following address: http://www.parl.gc.ca MENTAL HEALTH OF CANADIAN VETERANS: A FAMILY PURPOSE Report of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs Neil R. Ellis Chair JUNE 2017 42nd PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION STANDING COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS CHAIR Neil R. Ellis VICE-CHAIRS Robert Kitchen Irene Mathyssen MEMBERS John Brassard Emmanuella Lambropoulos Bob Bratina Alaina Lockhart Doug Eyolfson Cathay Wagantall Colin Fraser OTHER MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT WHO PARTICIPATED Mel Arnold Denis Lemieux Vance Badaway Ron McKinnon Sheri Benson Kyle Peterson Bob Benzen Jean-Claude Poissant Alupa A. Clarke Jean R. Rioux Serge Cormier Yves Robillard Francis Drouin Darrell Samson Fayçal El-Khoury Brigitte Sansoucy Peter Fragiskatos Bev Shipley Cheryl Gallant Jati Sidhu David de Burgh Graham David Sweet Garnett Genuis Dan Vandal Georgina Jolibois Karen Vecchio Linda Lapointe Bob Zimmer iii CLERKS OF THE COMMITTEE Grant McLaughlin Patrick Williams LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT Parliamentary Information and Research Service Jean-Rodrigue Paré, Analyst iv THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS has the honour to present its SIXTH REPORT Pursuant to its mandate under Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the Committee on Thursday, September 29, 2016, the Committee has studied mental health and suicide prevention among veterans and has agreed to report the following: v TABLE OF CONTENTS MENTAL HEALTH OF CANADIAN VETERANS: A FAMILY PURPOSE ....................... 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 1. MENTAL HEALTH AND SUICIDE AMONG MILITARY PERSONNEL .................. 2 1.1. Mental health of Canadian Armed Forces members ..................................... 2 1.2. Suicide among Canadian Armed Forces members ....................................... 3 2. MENTAL HEALTH AND SUICIDE AMONG VETERANS ...................................... 7 2.1. Mental health of veterans .............................................................................. 7 2.2. Suicide among veterans ................................................................................ 8 3. RISK FACTORS .................................................................................................. 10 3.1. Deployment ................................................................................................. 11 3.2. Transition to civilian life................................................................................ 11 3.3. Career transition .......................................................................................... 16 3.4. Mental health problems and the risk of suicide ............................................ 18 3.5. Glorification of suicide.................................................................................. 19 4. MEFLOQUINE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF CANADIAN MILITARY PERSONNEL AND VETERANS ............................................................ 20 4.1. Current knowledge about the psychiatric effects of mefloquine ................... 21 4.2. Use of mefloquine by Canadian military personnel deployed to Somalia .... 23 4.3. Continued use of mefloquine as a prophylaxis against malaria ................... 25 4.4. Mefloquine and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ......................................... 28 5. PROTECTIVE FACTORS .................................................................................... 30 5.1. Family members .......................................................................................... 30 5.2. Peer support ................................................................................................ 33 5.3. Chaplains ..................................................................................................... 35 6. BARRIERS TO CARE .......................................................................................... 35 6.1. Career progression ...................................................................................... 35 6.2. Wait times for mental health care ................................................................ 37 6.3. Stigmatization .............................................................................................. 39 7. TREATMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS .............................................. 42 7.1. Screening .................................................................................................... 43 vii 7.2. Mental health care available to Canadian Armed Forces members ............ 44 7.3. Veterans Affairs Canada services ............................................................... 46 7.3.1. Veterans Affairs Canada’s network of Operational Stress Injury clinics ................................................................................................ 47 7.3.2. Veterans Affairs Canada Assistance Service ................................... 48 7.3.3. Partnerships ..................................................................................... 50 7.3.4. Family resource centres ................................................................... 52 7.3.5. Centres of excellence ....................................................................... 53 7.4. Services offered by third parties .................................................................. 54 7.4.1. Dog therapy ...................................................................................... 54 7.4.2. Marijuana .......................................................................................... 55 7.4.3. Other initiatives ................................................................................. 55 7.5. Sexual assault ............................................................................................. 57 8. MENTAL HEALTH IN THE ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE ................. 59 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 61 LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................. 65 APPENDIX A: LIST OF WITNESSES ........................................................................... 69 APPENDIX B: LIST OF BRIEFS ................................................................................... 75 REQUEST FOR GOVERNMENT RESPONSE ............................................................. 77 SUPPLEMENTARY OPINION THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA ............... 79 SUPPLEMENTARY OPINION OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF CANADA .. 87 viii MENTAL HEALTH OF CANADIAN VETERANS: A FAMILY PURPOSE INTRODUCTION [P]eople who are contemplating suicide … feel like there are no other options. Families share that despair; they often bear the brunt of the anger and witness the fear. Families often experience and feel hopelessness and helplessness. … Families that are well supported, functioning, and healthy can be a significant protective factor for those contemplating suicide. … They can be the centre or foundation of the system of support for people in distress: we've heard some people who have lived through distress—who have come out of the darkness to the other side—report that this was the result of somebody being in their lives who didn't give up.1 At its meeting of 29 September 2016, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs (the Committee) passed a motion to undertake “a study on mental health focused on improving the transitional support (closing the seam) between Canadian Forces and Veterans Affairs, and including recommendations which can ultimately be used in the development of a coordinated Suicide Prevention Program.”2 This resolution results from an observation made during the Committee’s previous study: A great
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