As Canadians we have a long history of supporting veterans who return home from war with physical injuries.
In fact, the Great War Veterans Association began over 100 years ago, before the Armistice was reached in November 1918 to end the First World War, to support veterans returning home.
The specific supports were laudable – employment, support for families who lost loved ones and convalescence from the physical trauma. But it was an era when injuries like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were referred to as shell shock and less understood or supported than the actual wounds their bodies suffered.
A hundred years have passed since the end of the First World War and we are only now just realizing how damaging the psychological trauma of war can be and how destabilizing and gut-wrenchingly difficult it can be to overcome without support.
But despite that knowledge and awareness there is still a paucity of mental health resources available to veterans across the country. An internal government report obtained earlier this year by the Canadian Press showed demand for mental health counselling far exceeded the resources available to a network of mental health clinics nationwide.
Set up to help veterans with PTSD and other psychological trauma, veterans are forced to wait on a long list before seeing someone. The problem is that timely access to a trained professional for mental health support is critical when a person is in crisis.
Veteran advocate groups are rightfully upset, as long wait times are unacceptable and can put a person’s life at risk. A crisis is a crisis – there is no excuse for not having more staff, expanding existing clinics and opening up new ones throughout the country. These men and women served our country and are suffering as a result of their experience – we owe them more than a wait list.
Even requests for disability benefits at Veterans Affairs Canada are backlogged, with warnings from the federal auditor general having already made it to parliamentarians.
This year’s national Silver Cross Mother, Anita Cernerini, knows all too well the ultimate consequence of psychological distress on current and former soldiers in Canada’s Armed Forces.
The Silver Cross Mother is chosen each year by the Royal Canadian Legion to represent mothers at the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa. The Silver Cross Mother places a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on behalf of all mothers who have lost children in military service.
Cernerini’s son, Private Thomas Welch, served as a C9 gunner as a member of 6 Platoon in Afghanistan in August 2003. Less than three months after returning, he died by suicide in Petawawa, Ont. It was marked as the first death by suicide of a Canadian solder after returning home from Afghanistan. It was later determined his death was a direct result of his military service.
Mental health resources aren’t a luxury or a burden, they are an essential part of how people recover and cope with trauma they experience – and for veterans it is absolutely critical. We fail our veterans every day when instead of timely access to these resources they are put on wait lists and given crisis phone lines as backstops.
Veterans deserve better and as Canadians we owe them the chance to recover from their injuries, both physically and mentally, for serving our country.
- Reprinted from the Rocky Mountain Outlook, a Great West newspaper
