Advocates, union release eight recommendations to fix Veterans Affairs Canada

by Monsfool Wed 15 Feb 2023, 7:21 am

Advocates, union release eight recommendations to fix Veterans Affairs Canada

Stu Neatby · Journalist | Posted: Feb 14. 2023

A roundtable of advocates, service providers and union members has come up with eight recommendations it believes the federal government must implement to end bureaucratic hurdles to a safe transition to civilian life for military veterans.

On Feb. 2, the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees and Wounded Warriors Canada convened a meeting of organizations from the veteran community.

The meeting included the Veterans Memorial Medical Centre Society, the Quebec Veterans Foundation, the Veterans Legal Assistant Foundation and several advocates, including retired Capt. Sean Bruyea and retired Sgt. Christopher Banks.

Veterans Affairs Canada has faced criticism for years for lengthy and traumatic wait times for needed health and mental health programs.

The recommendations included a call for Veterans Affairs Canada to limit the number of veteran files taken on by case managers to 25. This is the service standard of the department, but some staff members have caseloads as high as 40 to 60.

The roundtable also recommended the Department of National Defence and VAC pre-approve benefit applications before veterans are released from military service, to avoid complicated and delay-plagued application processes. The group also recommended all veterans, including RCMP officers and reservists, receive lifetime access to mental health services.

In an interview with SaltWire Network on Feb. 2, Wounded Warriors executive director Scott Maxwell said there has been a longstanding consensus among veteran support groups that VAC’s administrative delays can be highly traumatic for veterans.

“The gaps that form in that process are massive,” Maxwell said. “Having to retell your story and prove your injury and illness over and over again often leads veterans to just simply give up."

Other veteran groups that did not participate in the roundtable have made similar suggestions. The National Council of Veteran Associations in Canada has recommended VAC bypass its disability benefits application process by providing automatic entitlement of benefits to veterans.

The NCVA says these “automatic entitlements” should be followed up with “spot audits” to catch those that may take advantage of these programs.

The roundtable also recommended the reopening of veteran medical centres, the establishment of veteran advocate positions within VAC and a pause in the roll-out of a $560-million private contract for rehabilitation and vocational services for veterans.

‘Significant strides’

In an interview with SaltWire, Steven Harris, Veterans Affairs Canada’s assistant deputy minister for service delivery, did not commit to an automatic pre-approval process for veteran benefits.

He said the application process determines the nature of an injury while also establishing whether military service caused it.

Harris also said many of the recommendations from the group have already been implemented.

He said all veterans are entitled to a transition interview before leaving the military, which allows them access to a VAC case manager.

Harris also said the department has increased veteran access to mental health supports. In 2022, the department allowed all disability benefit applicants access to mental health benefits while they wait for a decision on their claim.

“If your application is approved and, of course, there's a service relationship to the disability that you're suffering, you get access to treatment benefits for as long as you live," Harris said.

Harris said VAC has made “significant strides” in reducing wait times for disability benefits. He said the department has reduced the backlog of veterans who have waited longer than four months 8,000, down from 22,000 two years ago.

Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay has committed to reducing this backlog to 5,000 by summer.

Automatic release of records

Another recommendation from the roundtable called for Ottawa and provinces to sign an agreement that would automatically release medical records to veteran health providers.

Union of Veterans Affairs Employees president Virginia Vaillancourt said delays in accessing service and health records by health providers in Nova Scotia played a role in the tragic case of Lionel Desmond, an Afghanistan veteran who killed himself and his family in 2017.

"That was a huge issue of access to service health records from DND to the province, which prevented Desmond from getting the care and the services in which he needed," Vaillancourt said.

Vaillancourt said her union and Wounded Warriors have discussed reconvening the group of veteran advocates in the future to help advocate for change at VAC.

“The Department's not listening,” she said.

“Our veterans deserve more respect than what they are getting at this point out of the department."

Stu Neatby is a political reporter with the SaltWire Network in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached by email at stu.neatby@theguardian.pe.ca and followed on Twitter @stu_neatby.

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