I suspect our affected soldiers are doing better than affected US
troops, but the stories of how soldiers are financially under-supported
to help them cope with the emotional costs of being "heroes" bear
similarity.
The audit is perplexing because it is determined that almost twice as
much funding goes to health care for military patients compared to that
spent on civilians, perhaps due to the disturbing fact that one in five
soldiers returning from Afghanistan suffer head injuries, yet mental
health care is deemed inadequate. If that is the case, then my point,
way back when I first wanted to discuss the future of work in today's
military, is at least in part, explored here. With military spending
mostly focused upon weaponry and equipment, success of the missions in
which they partake trumps mental well being of the actual troops who
make the "sacrifice". Unchecked, this becomes not only a systemic
failure, but is cumulative, contributing to skepticism of top
command's/government's priorities.
BTW: I just learned from the CBC that the recruitment byline being used
in Cdn. high schools and universities is "COME FIGHT WITH US". Not, come
/defend /with us! Hmmn. So they are targeting the most aggressive
amongst youth after-all. Oh, and we now have the Israeli army also
recruiting our youth under a program called Sar-el, who have already
sent me some spam for just going to their website @ sarelcanada.org. I
also learned that the Canadian government's largest cash outlay on youth
programs, $1 billion, has gone to the military youth camps program,
where they get a taste for firing grenades and rifles. Now, is that in
keeping with putting defence first?
Afghanistan veterans not getting needed mental health care, audit finds
Mike Blanchfield , CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
OTTAWA - The Canadian Forces are falling short in meeting the mental
health needs of soldiers returning from Afghanistan because the demand
for care is "outstripping available resources," Auditor General Sheila
Fraser said in a report to Parliament Tuesday.
The shortfalls, which came to light as part of a broader audit of the
rising cost of military health care, suggest the military has yet to
learn some hard lessons of the past decade, when retired general Romeo
Dallaire, now a Liberal senator, offered himself as a poster boy for the
mental health suffering of many Canadian peacekeepers who served with
him in Rwanda or on other operations in the Balkans.
This latest audit suggests that the Defence Department is failing to
meet the needs of the new generation of men and women currently serving
in Afghanistan as part of the military's most demanding combat mission
since the Korean War more than half a century ago.
One disabled veteran of Canada's involvement in the first Persian Gulf
War of 1991 questioned how the Forces can justify purchasing $20 billion
worth of new planes, helicopters and other hardware, while neglecting
the well documented mental health needs of their personnel.
"The care of families for mental health is quite small compared to some
of these equipment purchases," said Sean Bruyea, a former intelligence
officer who has battled post-traumatic stress. "The most important
resource of the military is the soldier, and the family is the primary
support of that soldier."
The audit singled out CFB Petawawa, Ont., near Ottawa, and CFB Gagetown,
N.B., as two military bases where the mental health services offered to
Afghanistan veterans and their families are inadequate.
"The department recognizes that treating mental health illnesses
appropriately should also address the member's environment, which for
many members means helping the family cope as well. Thus, in order to
meet obligations to treat the member, the department may also need to
include the family," the audit said.
"However, when surveyed by the department, mental health services in
places such as CFB Petawawa and CFB Gagetown - bases with large numbers
of members returning from deployment in Afghanistan - said they were
unable to extend member care to include family support because of
resource shortages."
Officials with the auditor general's office stressed that the Defence
Department has no legal obligation to treat families, only military
personnel. But the military itself has acknowledged that it has "a moral
obligation" to include families in the treatment of military members.
But Bruyea argued that if the military neglects the mental health needs
of soldiers' families, that will ultimately drive more people out of the
Forces.
Fraser's team did not set out to specifically audit the delivery of
mental health services. The issue came to light as part of a broader
study of whether the military is effectively managing the $500 million
it spends each year delivering health care to its 63,500 members.
The military spends almost twice as much on health care as the civilian
sector, with an annual cost of $8,600 per member compared with the
average of $4,500 that provinces spend on other Canadians.
The report turned up cases of "questionable transactions" by physicians
who did contract work for the military, and those cases have been
referred to the Defence Department's chief of review services for a
follow-up audit. In particular, some doctors appear to have
double-billed for services, but the circumstances surrounding the
payments remained unclear.
The audit concluded that, despite the rising cost of military health
care, the Forces still lack the information to determine whether their
members are getting appropriate care at the proper cost. Part of the
problem is that the military still relies on paper records, which makes
it difficult to compile the sort of broad analysis that computerized
records would afford.
As a result, the Forces don't know whether all their health care
professionals are licensed or certified. Nor were they able to tell
auditors how many Canadian troops have been injured in Afghanistan, or
what treatment they received.
"This information was not readily available and was only partially
captured because of a health care provider who took the time to compile
the data for his region. We also asked how many members were receiving
care from a mental health professional, but the department was unable to
compile this data," the report said.
CanWest News Service recently obtained data from the Canadian Forces
Expeditionary Force Command that found nearly 400 of 2,700 soldiers
returned from Kandahar with mental health problems. In all, that report
found that 15 per cent of troops reported mental health problems, about
five per cent reported major depression, while another five per cent
reported post-traumatic stress.
But, as Fraser's audit detailed, military health managers lack the
ability to generate their own overview of health services delivery.
Fraser said the Forces have made some gains since instituting reforms
seven years ago that were aimed at helping military patients navigate
their health system and claim benefits.
"Getting consistent Canadian Forces-wide data on health care has been an
ongoing challenge for senior management and has resulted in an ad hoc,
(reactive) approach to gathering management information," the audit stated.
/Ottawa Citizen/
© CanWest News Service 2007
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