Question Period Note: AFGHANISTAN VETERANS MENTAL HEALTH

• Veterans Affairs Canada is committed to ensuring eligible Veterans, including all those who deployed in Afghanistan, have access to the mental health support they need, when they need it.

• More Afghanistan Veterans are coming to Veterans Affairs Canada. This is good news as it means Veterans will continue to receive needed services after they leave the military.

• Veterans Affairs Canada continues the expansion of its mental health continuum of support and services to ensure timely access to required care.

• Veterans Affairs Canada funds a network of 11 specialized operational stress injury (OSI) clinics across the country (10 outpatient and 1 inpatient) as well as nine OSI Clinic satellite service sites closer to where Veterans live. More operational stress injury clinic satellite service sites will open across the country based on need.

BACKGROUND – AFGHANISTAN VETERANS MENTAL HEALTH

• Operational Stress Injury Clinics offer access (through referral) to an interdisciplinary team of mental health professionals who provide specialized assessment and treatment services to Veterans, Canadian Armed Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police members and understand their experience and unique needs.

• Veterans Affairs Canada also funds a well-established national network of approximately 4,000 mental health professionals in the community who deliver mental health treatments to eligible Veterans across Canada.

• The Veterans Affairs Canada Assistance Service (1-800-268-7708) or TDD (1-800-567-5803) offers a 24-hour toll-free help line, face-to-face psychological support, bereavement support and referral services, to Veterans, former RCMP members, family members or caregivers experiencing mental health or personal difficulties.

• Also available as of September 1st, 2018 is LifeSpeak, a free online, anonymous and confidential, mental and augmented physical health information and support resource for Veterans and their families.

• The Operational Stress Injury Social Support Service offers confidential peer support to Canadian Armed Forces members, Veterans and their families impacted by an operational stress injury. The support is provided by trained peer support and family peer support coordinators, who typically have first-hand experience with these injuries.

• A Canadian Veteran-specific version of Mental Health First Aid, launched in partnership with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, provides mental health literacy training to the Veteran community located across the country.

• Veterans Affairs Canada has collaborated with a number of partners to develop a series of free online and mobile applications for Veterans and their families including PTSD Coach Canada, The Operational Stress Injury Resource for Caregivers, Veterans and Mental Health tutorial and an Online Caregiver Training Program.

• VAC, in partnership with the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, has established a Centre of Excellence on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Related Mental Health Conditions to increase Canadian expertise on military and Veteran mental health. The Centre of Excellence will work with and expand existing Canadian mental health clinical and research networks to increase creation and dissemination of new Canadian expertise on issues. The new Centre of Excellence opened in June 2019.

• Additionally, the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada have developed a Joint Suicide Prevention Strategy. The strategy was released on October 5, 2017 and includes comprehensive Canadian Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada Action Plans. The Veterans Affairs Canada Suicide Prevention Strategy Action Plan identifies 63 action items, one-third of which have been completed.

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