09 May 2024
14:00 – 15:30 (ET)
Virtual – Microsoft Teams
Service Excellence and Transition Advisory Group Members
- Warrant Officer (Retired) Jessica Hewett, Co-Chair
- Joseph Burke
- Lieutenant-Colonel (Retired) Dave Byrne
- Dr. Darryl Cathcart
- Corporal (Retired) Sylvain Chartrand, Canadian Veterans Advocacy
- Deanna Fimrite, Army, Navy & Air Force Veterans in Canada
- Master Warrant Officer (Retired) Michael Hogan
- Lieutenant (Retired) Carolyn Hughes, Royal Canadian Legion
Regrets
- Corporal (Retired) Bruce Moncur, Co-Chair
- Steve Graham, RCMP Veterans’ Association
- Lieutenant Colonel Kirk Watson, Canadian Armed Forces Liaison Officer to Veterans Affairs Canada
Office of the Minister of Veterans Affairs
- Tabea De Vries, Special Assistant
Veterans Affairs Canada officials
- Trudie MacKinnon, Director General, Centralized Operations, Co-Chair
- Amy MacDougald, Senior Analyst, Community Engagement
- Elissa Morgan, Senior Analyst, Community Engagement
- Elizabeth Hughes, Project Officer, Community Engagement
Observer
- Laura Kelly, Office of the Veterans Ombud
Land acknowledgement and welcome remarks
The Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) Co-Chair welcomed the group and led the meeting from Charlottetown, PE, and by acknowledging she resided on the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. The group was then asked to take pause to reflect on how to advance the reconciliation, whether it be to attend an Indigenous ceremony, or to listen to stories to better understand Indigenous traditions, or by other means.
Approval of previous Record of Discussion
The 14 February 2024 Record of Discussion was tabled and approved by the members.
Debrief from National Stakeholder Summit / Women Veterans Forum 2024
The VAC Co-Chair led the group with a debrief on both of these events. It was an excellent experience and was heartening to share and hear stories among the attendees. The Department is planning to share a final report of these events in Fall 2024.
The group members offered several key items of feedback on both the Stakeholder Summit and Women Veterans Forum including:
- Members felt very fortunate to be able to attend.
- The hybrid format with the opportunity to dial-in was appreciated.
- Members look forward to meeting every two years for Stakeholder Summits and appreciate this method of communicating information.
- Participants shared the need for a greater number of voices to be heard during the time allotted to questions.
- Time should be given to the Ministerial Advisory Groups to meet to share updates and priorities.
Since these events, in April 2024, the VAC Co-Chair led a follow up virtual plenary session on The Modernization of VAC’s Disability Benefit Tools. Her presentation focused on the Entitlement Eligibility Guidelines and the Table of Disabilities, and she is currently closing the loop on all of the questions and comments received from the attendees.
Member Discussion
Minister’s Priority 1: Provide analysis on which condition(s) the Department could consider prioritizing for automatic treatment benefit approval (modeled after the Mental Health Benefits program).
The VAC Co-Chair began the discussion by sharing some data and statistics on comorbid conditions and by exploring three questions related to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The data revealed (1) the five most common comorbid conditions with the primary application of PTSD, (2) the five most common comorbid conditions with a later application of PTSD, and (3) the breakdown into favorable rates and biological sex.
The top five consequential decisions for all Mental Health conditions include: Bruxism, Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome, Erectile Dysfunction, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Hypertension.
Several questions were posed to the VAC Co-Chair, including several on the relationship between Traumatic Brain Injury and concussion syndrome, and the associations between PTSD and other conditions such as depression and anxiety. The VAC Co-chair will confirm some of this data with Dr. Boswall and share with the group.
The group agreed that the format of the Mental Health benefit in terms of immediate treatment is preferable, but that they could issue a two-tier future recommendation on another benefit (PTSD and musculoskeletal (MSK)). The VAC Co-Chair will follow up with the group on these statistics. An important consideration shared with the group was that the realm of physical care treatment that Veterans receive while in the Forces be continued as an automatic treatment with VAC post release. Such examples are Occupational therapy, chiropractic and massage therapy.
The VAC Co-Chair noted that the Mental Health Benefit was not opted into by the RCMP. The RCMP continues to be engaged with VAC anytime new benefits are being offered to CAF Veterans.
Minister’s Priority 2: What concrete actions could the Department (in partnership with CAF) consider implementing as part of the transition process for releasing members?
The VAC Co-Chair noted that Jane Hicks, Director General of Service Delivery and Program Management and VAC Co-Chair of the Care and Support Advisory Group led a plenary presentation on transition to Advisory Group members in Fall 2023, and is always looking for ways to improve the transition process. Currently there is a transition interview and a 90 day follow up with the Veteran. This opened the dialogue amongst the group members, and they discussed that the process could be more standardized and include an additional follow-up at one year. Providing multiple avenues of communication with Veterans would work best.
A member shared the Government Response to the Report of The Standing Committee on National Defence titled: Canadian Armed Forces Health Care and Transition Services with the group. They suggested it was good document for the group to review, to help inform this group’s wording of their recommendations.
A comment made by several members of the group indicated that the multi-factor authentication process that is initiated in My VAC Account constitutes a barrier to accessing the accounts. The group agreed that security features are needed but they are curious if there is an alternate IT solution. The VAC Co-Chair will take this back and raise as a concern.
Other excellent conversation points brought up in response to this priority included:
- VAC should look at the transition process before the member is released and should make the process less complex. A lot of information is provided to the Veteran and a more strategic approach is needed so Veterans are not lost in the discussion. It proves to be difficult on release and Veterans are overwhelmed.
- VAC should form a joint working group with the Canadian Armed Forces to examine and improve this process.
- A lot of the discussion held today overlaps with the Care and Support Advisory Group; these two Advisory Groups could work together on the transition piece in the future.
Wrap up and next steps
The VAC Co-Chair thanked all of the members today for a very engaging discussion and briefly summarized the groups next steps. The VAC Co-Chair will follow up with the group on several items including data on the consequential / co-morbid conditions that form a comprehensive mental health package. She will also share data on the top five conditions – with focus on MSK. It was also noted that the draft member recommendations on the Minister’s priorities are due by the end of May 2024 and that she would like to have one more meeting before the end of the month to review those recommendations and obtain member approval.