Canada's Veterans: Dead Or Online

At least, that's apparently how Canada's Government sees them.

 

The federal government has come under fire from veterans and their advocates to address a rash of recent soldier and veteran suicides, and for the recent closure of nine Veterans Affairs offices.

 

While the budget contains no new programs to serve veterans, it allocates an additional $6 million over two years in funding for veterans' funerals -- $102 million was previously pledged for 2013-14, and Tuesday's budget adds $3 million for 2014-15, and $3 million for $2015-16.  It also expands the funeral fund to soldiers who served in modern conflicts.

 

The budget also pledges $2.1 million to enhance a web-based tool for veterans to access services.

 

Because all the remaining WWII vets are clearly online and if veterans of modern conflicts commit suicide or crimes as a result of psychological damage suffered, how's that the government's responsibility?

 

Pathetic.

 

Fantino's Leadership Fail

"It was a set-up," Fantino said.  "The union exploited these folks and that to me is reprehensible."

So it turns out there is more than one side to this story, and now it has been reported.

I'd like to be baffled; I really would.  For a Minister (who has been accused of jigging his expenses) of a Party that has built it's entire brand around exploitation (Illegal Coalitions?  Dying MPs? Their own health policy as fodder for fundraisers?) is more than a bit rich.  Surely, this level of hypocrisy is unprecedented, shocking and something Team Harper would feel an urge to repent over.

But no - it's business as usual, just another day on the Hill.

Politics is all about simple, standardized and often-repeated messaging.  It's what politicians deliver and, sadly, it's all a great host of them are prepared to listen to.  If you get 20 different stakeholders each impacted by the same issue, but telling different stories, a Minister/their staff are liable to say "see, they all want different things, so there's nothing we can do here - it's status quo and let's move on."

So any advocacy group that is good at what they do works hard to speak the language of politics, which means standardized, oft-repeated messaging.  

The same goes for the fact that veterans had their tabs paid for.  This is all business as usual, too - I've been involved in many campaigns where individuals impacted by certain policies or who would gain from new ones were keen to participate in face-to-face meetings with government officials but couldn't afford the trip.  

As organizations behind such efforts are meant to support their "clients" or "members" it's a natural part of their mandate to facilitate such visits through subsidizing or covering travel and accommodation costs.  I'm going to be accompanying my grandfather, a World War II vet and Holocaust Survivor to a memorial service at the former Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany this April, paid for by the German taxpayer.  Is that a cynical manipulation or the fulfilling of a social responsibility?

Of course, Julian Fantino knows all this, as does Stephen Harper and every other politician on the Hill.  They will also be aware of the fact that many veterans are suffering from their policies and legitimately concerned about how they're being treated.

If Fantino truly put veterans' best interests ahead of partisan ones and truly believed his policy approach was the right one to take, as a leader you'd think it would be imperative for him to clearly demonstrate that respect and make the effort to empathize with these veterans and go to whatever lengths necessary to explain why he felt his approach was the best one.

Leaders don't decide, sell and defend - they discuss, decide and then do.

But that's not what happened.  Fantino showed up late - that wasn't the Union's doing.  Seeing that the people for whom he is, as Minister of Veterans' Affairs, responsible for were upset, Fantino could have sat down and given his guests the gift of his time and made it clear, in person, that he does care.  Such an approach would have undermined any manipulations by the union and demonstrated his clear intent to the veterans who were right there in front of him.

Instead, he got accusatory.

Now that this whole incident has become yet more fodder for the press - in addition to demanding the spouse of a soldier who committed suicide repay some of her disability cheque - Fantino had yet another leadership opportunity where he could have put the veterans first and focused on explaining why he felt his approach was correct.

Instead, he went on the attack, as his Party tends to do, dismissing the real emotions of the veterans themselves and instead focusing on blaming the Union.  By accusing the union of playing the vets as pawns, Fantino is doing the exact same thing.

Why?  Because he, as Minister, felt wronged and as such, felt compelled to defend himself.

This is not leadership.  The only time leaders put themselves first is when it's in the line of fire.  

It shouldn't have mattered what the union's intent was; he is Minister, not them.  It has always been in his power to be the leader instead of a player, but it's not to be.  

Frankly, there aren't many leaders on our political landscape at all; everyone is content to play the rules and cut corners in the partisan game that has led to the decline of Canadian democracy.

There's a reason why Canadians are so cynical about our politicians, and this is it.  

I'd say Fantino should be ashamed of himself for failing to live up to the responsibility of his office, but it would be a waste of breath.

We don't do shame or responsibility in Canadian politics any more.  

But we desperately need to.  Responsible, democratic governance is what our veterans have fought to defend. 

March For Mental Health

Five other soldiers have committed suicide in the last six weeks, prompting veterans' advocates to demand action on what they say is a mental health crisis, including more resources being made available to the Department of National Defence.

The scope of the mental health problem reaches beyond just the recorded suicides, as documents obtained by Global News Found that for every suicide reported in the Canadian Forces in 2012, there was at least one attempted suicide reported.

This is all on top of the tragic suicide of Staff Sergeant Ian Matthews of the Hamilton police force who ended his life last month.

It all piles up.  As a colleague of Sergeant Matthews, writing anonymously, explained in a letter to the editor:

Like the many scars that tormented Ian, there are new scars, there forever, on many people.  His family.  His friends.  His colleagues.  Those who were with him in the change room that fateful moment.  Those who investigated his death.  One must wonder what will be done for them.  What will change?  Or, will the cycle go on?  Will trauma, emotions, turmoil, cumulative stress disorder, PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and family problems among police officers continue to be ignored?  Ian was certainly not the first.  Will any attempts be made to ensure he is the last?

When the people who protect us from harm both in our streets and across oceans kill themselves, they are work casualties, the same as if they'd been shot by an opponent.  There is no work/life separation for them.

Just as firefighters can inhale toxins that lead to unexpected and costly illnesses later in life, PTSD and related accumulated injuries can be fatal, can tear families apart and do have broad social consequences.

But justice and mental health is just the tip of the iceberg.  We are increasingly crippled by a crisis that is eating away at our economy, putting massive burdens on our healthcare system and sucking morale from society at large.

We don't teach youth to understand and self-regulate their cognitive states.  Diagnosis is more an art than science, more interview than evidence-based.  Mental illness is like asthma or diabetes - with the right accommodations, treatment and support, most sufferers can leave normal, engaging lives.

The thing that keeps this from happening is stigma, superstitions around mental health as outdated and outmoded as fearing the number 13.  Mental illness isn't moral weakness; stigmatizing it is.

If our officers and soldiers who go through psychological screening to be accepted aren't "tough" enough not to get mentally ill, that says something, doesn't it?

This is too important an issue to let slide to partisan bickering.  I don't care who's to blame for policies made or not made in the past; I'm not interested in blaming police, or EDPs, or service providers.

I want to see this fixed. 

It's an issue that matters; for Rehtaeh Parsons, Ashley Smith, Sammy Yatim, Chris Peloso, the hundreds of stories we don't hear about every year and all those who suffer, painfully, in silence because of ignorance and fear, this must change.  We must change.

The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, in conjunction with partners working directly in the mental health field, is holding an all-encompassing conference to discuss what's happening, what can be done better and how to catalyze the culture change we need.

This conference can and should serve as an opportunity for political parties at both the federal and provincial levels to renew their commitment to fostering a mentally healthy society and put forward some new ideas and shared solutions.  It should be a chance to promote new innovations and tools being used to help, like WalkAlong and RealTimeCrisis.

Most importantly, though, it needs to serve as a tipping point, a kick in the butt for all of us to change our view about how the mind works, what impacts it and how we can manage our mental health better. 

We have to do this.  We need to start now.

Lives are depending on it.

Mental Illness in the Public Sector: Tony Clement Had An Option

Treasury Board President Tony Clement was questioned about the way the government was managing its cuts following revelations that a Justice Canada lawyer committed suicide after he and his wife received “affected letters” putting them on notice that their jobs were in jeopardy.

 

“It’s not my place to respond to this question,” he said following Question Period on Thursday.

Pardon my English, but bullshit, Mr. Clement.  You're the Minister responsible for the mismanagement of the Slash-And-Burn Public Staff File - if not you, who? 

 

It's enough to drive you nuts - or at least, exacerbate depression and anxiety.  I really find it hard to fathom how, after a multi-faceted campaign to achieve majority government, Team Harper can be so silo-based in its thinking to not see how harmful their policy regimen is to Canada,  particularly given the commitment of folks like Stephen Harper himself and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to addressing Canada's mental health crisis.

 

But we know what they're thinking - too many people are suckling at the government teat.  Broad ranging government services and regulations impede success.  It's a cut-throat world out there, survival of the fittest, etc.  People have to get tougher, take more responsibility and become more competitive to get ahead. 

 

Here's the thing - survival of the fittest isn't about everyone becoming tougher.  It's about the less competitive literally dying off.

 

That, really, is what suicide is.  Most people with suicidal ideation go through a horrendous, tortured internal process that chips away at their sense of self-worth.  They feel they have no value - in fact, all they do is place a burden on others.  Every minute is merely another eternity of enduring psychological agony and shame.  In essence, they don't feel like they're fit enough to be in society to such a strong degree that they feel the most responsible course of action is  to take themselves out of it.

 

What are some of the external factors that lead to suicidal ideation?

 

- Grief

- Unemployment

- Rejection

- Traumatic events

- Financial/problems

 

So, picture you've worked hard to get your law degree and secure a job but still feel as though you aren't doing enough to earn your keep.  In fact, you're even willing to cancel your vacation because you feel you'll be letting others down/not getting enoughdone if you take a break.  You already doubt yourself - then you have that doubt validated by your employer with an "affected" letter.

 

“We have stressed on a number of occasions (the cuts) will affect the lives of people, it will impact on not only them but the people around them as well as their individual circumstances. We are not talking about widgets. The people are real and they need to be treated with respect and dignity.”

How many of those receiving affected letters have families and mortgages?  How easy will it be for them to compete with younger folk on the job market that don't have responsibilities so can work longer hours and probably for lower wages?  Will these people worry about how to support their family, feel as though they have failed their duties?  What does this do to one's sense of self-worth?

 

The whole "keep home and work separate" meme is crap.  There is only one person; we can't switch work/life brains the way Mister Roger changes his shoes.  Just as the stresses a person faces at home will impact their performance at work, what happens at work impacts family life, too.  What happens to the individual at the centre of all this accumulated stress?  Their health, performance and relationships begin to suffer. 

 

About 48 per cent of all health claims filed by public servants are for mental health claims, often for depression and anxiety. As of August, those claims were already 13 per cent higher than last year.

 

This isn't just the public sector, either.  Mental illness and addictions cost the Ontario economy $39 billion annually and are trending to become the number one cost driver of disability claims by 2020.  The Private Sector spends at least $2.1 billion annually on disability claims, drug costs and employee assistance programs (EAPs).  It's like cognitive carpal tunnel syndrome - the repetitive psychological stress doesn't make you tougher or whatever, it wears you down.

 

As if it wasn't bad enough that the Harper Government is abdicating any sense of responsibility for mental health in its public sector employees, they are completely dropping the ball on mental health in the military.  How can we be thinking of war with Iran when we haven't dealt with the mental health of our troops? 

 

But back to Tony Clement.  We can already see the narrative he hopes to use emerging; people shouldn't bring their work home, this guy had problems unrelated to his work, so on and so forth.  Whatever mental health issues emerge in the public sector, it's got nothing to do with him.  In avoiding questions about whether he has read any reports about stress and anxiety levels among the public service since he started his cuts, Clement is trying to evade any personal responsibility for the consequence of his actions.  Of course, we knew this was coming - Team Harper has been strategically dismantling data since day one for the express purpose of unencumbering their policy decisions from the burden of fact.

 

Unless Clement has been living in a complete bubble, though, there's no way he could have avoided the countless studies out there tying workplace anxiety to mental health.  A fellow he might know by the name of Michael Kirby has dedicated a lot of time to the issue.  Besides, isn't one of his duties as President of the Treasury Board to table, in Parliament, reports, papers and operational documents?

 

If Clement has been pulling a Rob Ford and ignoring the content of his materials, there is still the fact that he committed, publicly, to a supportive and orderly staff transition.  Hell, I even sent him a template he could have built a plan on:

 

Craig Carter-Edwards — @TonyclementCPC; if you're seriously looking into an exiting-staff transition strategy, feel free to crib from this http://t.co/26akna4B (1)

 

You, sir, had an option that could have done a hell of a lot to prevent this uptick in anxiety and all its consequences.  Including this poor man's suicide.

 

Instead of leaving employees in the lurch and peeling the staff reduction bandaid off over a period of months, Clement could have created an orderly transition first and put more effort into making the reduction as quick as possible, allowing for people to move on and helping them to do so effectively.

 

That sounds a bit too much like enabling, though doesn't it?  Team Harper's whole mandate is about downloading responsibility and beating, not supporting, the other guy.  Their politics bleeds directly into their governance style, to Canada's detriment.  Folks, if you really feel that strongly against responsibility, don't run for office.  The job of leaders is to lead, not to abdicate. 

 

They still have a chance.  If he moves quickly, Clement can still put together a true staff transition plan and help stop this cognitive crisis in the public sector.  Likewise, Team Harper can still do as they've been advised and set up a comprehensive, national mental health strategy.  All the evidence points to the benefit both of these actions would have for the public.

 

Here's the challenge, though - implementing a proactive, national mental health strategy and providing supports for their workers goes against everything the Harper folk believe; survival of the fittest, centrally coordinated services are bad, government is the problem, not the solution, etc.  They can ignore the facts for only so long before more people start to suffer from their approach - something Clement has seen happen before.

 

They can either pursue their ideology or they can help prevent more mental health related tragedies, but they can't do both.

 

It must make them crazy to think about.

Austerity Now - A Greek Tragedy

“So for him to reach the point of suicide out of economic hardship means a lot. It shows how the social fabric is unraveling.”

This poor, Greek soul isn't the first and won't be the last.  The response to austerity measures for some, when so many still have ridiculous wealth (no endeavour short of solving poverty or war is worth such sums) and minimal skin in active politics, is only going to get worse.

As the water hole shrinks, the number of sales calls (wasn't there a law about that) coming in on the phone, the dirty tricks being used to con the vulnerable to give up what they have, etc. increase.  Cries of "circle the wagons" and "with us or against us" rhetoric are going to grow louder.  So will the voices of protesters, the frustrated many as they wait for someone, anyone with enough inspiration or anger to emerge for them to rally behind.

We will see more acts of horrific violence that will be carved off as their own thing, completely removed from a broader social sickness.  We'll identify problem groups that are tantalizingly other and tell ourselves if we could wrap them up and throw them away, the same would happen to our social woes; poverty, crime, a lack of work.

It is a cycle that has repeated again and again in society, but it can be changed, if we cut the chord of history.  First, we need to cast our eyes further down the road and muse about what kind of world we want to see tomorrow.

Connectivity.  A changed social structure.  More accommodated, empowering opportunities at the bottom, making for a better labour class for the top to exploit - to less income, but leaving greater legacies.  Those that resist will be shamed, by suicides like the one in Greece or sad stories of personal horrors, or angered by massacres or brought to their knees by hordes of angry masses.  Unless they trip forward.

The Board is set for a social change of massive proportions.  All that's missing is the hand of the player. 

Or is it?