Opinion: Veterans Affairs Canada is letting down its clients


The federal government’s agreement with an outside contractor makes it harder to provide effective trauma-focused treatment in a timely way.

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As registered mental health clinicians from Renfrew County and Ottawa, we are seeking to inform Canadians about changes in services delivered by Veterans Affairs Canada. Together, we have more than 35 years of combined experience providing mental health treatment services to veterans diagnosed with Operational Stress Injuries (OSIs), including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder and soon.

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In June 2021, Veterans Affairs Canada changed the way it does business when providing rehabilitation services to veterans. It awarded a contract for $560 million to Partners in Canadian Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Services (PCVRS) to be the go-between with clients and service providers such as ourselves. Prior to this contract we dealt directly with case managers at the department who would intake the veterans and direct them to the rehabilitation services they needed.

In November 2022, Veterans Affairs Canada finally started implementing this new contract. That’s when the problems started, for us and the veterans who want our services. The problems include the contract’s impact on veterans’ mental health; loss of access to adequately trained and experienced clinicians; and lack of cultural competency. Despite our best efforts to get answers or to resolve these issues, the rollout has continued and our concerns have only increased.

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We are the clinicians bearing witness with veterans while they disclose and begin to heal psychological wounds. OSIs have a substantial impact on many aspects of veterans’ lives. Frequently, we work with veterans who have been living with significant mental-health symptoms for years owing to their fear of the stigma associated with such diagnoses, which are often career-ending. Living with untreated OSIs for a long time can render disorders more resistant to treatment, and sometimes make symptoms permanent.

The ability to provide trauma-focused treatment is integral to veterans achieving maximum recovery. A safe, trusting therapeutic relationship with clinicians is necessary for healing to occur. Developing trust is difficult for veterans as their experiences have made them quite distrustful of people and institutions, and hyper-vigilant in their environments. Clinicians need to prioritize helping veterans feel safe by doing therapeutic work at the pace required to maintain their sense of safety. Skilled, experienced clinicians will be able to recognize distress in veterans and support them.

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Lifemark, PCVRS’s parent company, has a background in physical health rehabilitation services, not mental-health treatment, especially for veterans. Its approach fails to understand the complexity of treating military-related trauma and demonstrates a universal lack of understanding of veterans’ complex mental-health challenges.

There is an overall lack of program transparency, which has led to more questions than answers, increased distress for veterans, and duplication of interviews conducted by individuals without the necessary training to ask about suicidal ideation or traumatic experiences. Veterans report experiencing increased distress during three-hour interviews, while others are choosing to walk away without help. The PCVRS program appears to prioritize administrative processes over client care, being overly focused on timelines and rushing treatments, rather than understanding veterans’ unique needs and the importance of a culturally competent approach.

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The inability of PCVRS to hire clinicians locally will result in shifting to predominately online services, with clinicians who may not meet the standards for licensure in their province. The ability to care for psychologically injured veterans is a skillset that requires particular training and education, and years of experience. To expect entry-level clinicians to have the required skills is a remarkable disservice to veterans and clinicians.

While the Canadian inflation rate and prices of office space are skyrocketing, PCVRS has significantly reduced session fees for clinicians while increasing administrative requirements, leading to the potential exodus of those qualified to treat veterans. Veterans will lose access to clinicians who have spent years building therapeutic relationships and gaining additional training to provide the most advanced trauma-focused care.

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The people who serve our country take significant risks and sacrifice family time to serve. As mental-health professionals, it is our ethical duty to advocate for responsible treatments and the integrity of our relationships with clients. Often, suffering people struggle to advocate for themselves; veterans are no exception. We want to prevent a sense of hopelessness, failure or, worse, suicide.

The current financial climate requires cost-cutting measures, but are Canadians willing to put veterans at risk in the process? This new program appears to cost Canadians more by duplicating case management services and repeating program requirements already completed. We understand there are transitional challenges, but the “confidential” consultation process appears to have missed the mark by not engaging those on the front lines. We are not saving taxpayers’ money; we are offering less, and lining the pockets of a private company. Veterans are left to work within a counter-therapeutic approach, or go without vocational or monetary support for treatment. We need people like them to serve this country, and we need to take care of them after they are injured.

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Dr. Alisha Henson, Ph.D., C. Psych (supervised practice) has provided mental-health services to veterans and their families, military families, and other community members since 2009. Marie Josée Hull, MSW, RSW is a registered social worker who started working full time with veterans and their families in 2011. Shannon Rutledge, MSW, RSW, is a Registered Social Worker providing mental health treatment services to veterans in Renfrew County since 2013. Julie Clarke, MACP, SEP, RP is a Registered Psychotherapist and has provided mental health services and support to those in crisis and uniformed members and their families since 2011.

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