NDDN Committee Report

It is widely recognized in the Canadian Forces that the well-being of military families is crucial to operational effectiveness. Soldiers in battle should not have to worry about their loved ones at home.

Since 1992, the Department of National Defence has supported a network of more than 40 Military Family Resource Centres (MFRC) in cities and on military bases across the country.[51] When troops deploy on operations, Canadian Forces Bases also mobilize Deployment Support Centres (DSC), populated by military personnel dedicated to supporting families left behind.[52]

In 2008, the Canadian Forces held the first annual Families Summit, at which MFRC and military family representatives gathered with senior military leaders to discuss how family support services can be enhanced. A national campaign championing the role and importance of military families has been developed, under the title Military Families: The Strength Behind the Uniform and there are plans in progress to establish a national Canadian Forces Family Advisory Board that will report twice a year to the Armed Forces Council, to provide advice on military family issues directly to senior Canadian Forces leaders.

Families of military personnel with mental health concerns currently have access to a range of Canadian Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada services and programs, including counselling available through the Member Assistance Program and the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) network.[53] Support is also provided by the joint Department of National Defence/Veterans Affairs Canada Centre for the Support of Injured Members, Injured Veterans and Their Families (known as ‘the Centre’) and the National Operational Stress Injuries Centre in Saint Anne de Bellevue, Quebec.[54] Crisis intervention is available through the network of MFRCs across the country, in the US and in Europe.

ACCESS TO CARE

The provision of health care services to military families, like civilian families, is a provincial responsibility. However, access to that care is uneven. In relatively isolated or rural military bases such as CFB Cold Lake and CFB Petawawa, few, if any, military families have family doctors, due to shortages of medical health professionals in the area, although they do have access to nearby hospitals and emergency clinics. Families that have a family doctor in one location will not necessarily gain another when they move to a different location in the country or overseas.

The Committee heard evidence that even where health care services are available, there may be challenges in getting to it, once again particularly in isolated or rural areas. Family members are sometimes required to travel a considerable distance to attend specialist medical appointments, but do not have regular or reliable means to get there. In this way, what was described to us as an access to care issue, might, in some cases, be just a transportation issue. This is one issue that can be solved by the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces.

RECOMMENDATION 23

The Department of National Defence should immediately provide enhanced transportation resources (such as modern multi-passenger vans or highway cruiser buses and drivers) to isolated military bases to ensure that military personnel and family members have adequate transportation for access to out-of-town health care services and medical appointments.

RESPECT AND EMPATHY

Some family members, particularly parents, expressed clear disappointment at the apparent lack of respect and empathy they got from some Commanding Officers, or their representatives, when they sought to intervene on behalf of their son or brother, who, in the cases we heard, held the rank of Private and Corporal.

Also, the operational chain of command apparently has little tolerance for the interest of family members in the administration and care of an injured soldier, particularly if that soldier feels unattended to. Mid-level commanders may chafe at the notion that parents might have an opinion and role in influencing treatment to be given to their son, the soldier. We have already provided a recommendation related to this issue.

BECOMING ENGAGED

The Canadian Forces provide a plethora of military family social support services, many through the network of MFRCs, but others through unit and Base programs. MFRCs are located on major Canadian Forces Bases to support the mainly Regular Force families that reside there. There are other MFRCs, like the one in Calgary, that serve a clientele mainly composed of reserve families. Some, like the MFRC in Ottawa, serve a collection of families from various backgrounds, the only common element being the fact that they have a family member deployed on an operation somewhere.

The Committee is aware of evidence that some military families, both Regular and Reserve, do not take full advantage of MFRCs, or other family support programs. There appear to be two reasons for this. First, serving soldiers, who receive information about family support services during their pre-deployment training, are less than diligent in passing that information on to their spouses. Second, some spouses, particularly those raising a family in a larger urban area and not on a military base, prefer not to get engaged with military family support services, apparently feeling they can do just fine on their own.

These circumstances are particularly prevalent in families with deploying Reserve Force members. In one appearance before the Committee, the parents of one young Reservist, one of whom is a medical doctor, acknowledged they did not act on the family support information provided to them, by their son and his unit, prior to deployment.

While families cannot be compelled to participate in social support programs offered, the Committee does feel they should be respectfully reminded that becoming engaged will help them cope with the absence of their loved one and provide the comfort in knowing the range of help available should they need it. Moreover, it is also important that military spouses and families realize that even if they do not require help during the tour, they may in a position to help another family who is less fortunate. If military families expect to benefit from the myriad of social support programs provided by the Canadian Forces, they have a responsibility to become engaged.

RECOMMENDATION 24

The Canadian Forces has an obligation to remind personnel that they have an obligation to keep their families fully informed of medical and social support services available to them. The Canadian Forces must continue to encourage military families to engage those medical and social support services.