Mental Health Services for Veterans
Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
Mental Health Services for Veterans
(Chapter 3—2014 Fall Report of the Auditor General of Canada)
25 February 2015
Jerome Berthelette
Assistant Auditor General of Canada
Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss Chapter 3, Mental Health Services for Veterans. Joining me at the table is Dawn Campbell, Director, who was responsible for the audit.
As of 31 March 2014, about 15,000 veterans were eligible to receive mental health support from Veterans Affairs Canada through the Disability Benefits Program. An additional 1,000 veterans in the Department’s Rehabilitation Program self-identified as having a mental health condition. The proportion of the Department’s disability benefits clients with mental health conditions has increased from less than 2 percent in 2002 to almost 12 percent in 2014.
Our objective was to determine whether Veterans Affairs Canada had facilitated timely access to services and benefits for veterans with mental illness. We focussed on the timeliness of eligibility decisions made by Veterans Affairs Canada. We did not assess the appropriateness of the decisions made or the quality of care received.
For eligible veterans, the Department pays for various mental health services not covered by provincial health plans. These services can include specialized psychological care, residential treatment, and some prescribed medications.
We found that Veterans Affairs Canada had put in place important mental health supports. These included operational stress injury clinics, a 24/7 telephone service, and the Operational Stress Injury Social Support Program. However, in many cases, the Department was not doing enough to facilitate veterans’ timely access to mental health services and benefits.
The Rehabilitation Program provides access to mental health care support for those veterans who are having difficulty transitioning to civilian life. Eligibility requirements are less stringent than those of the Disability Benefits Program, but treatment and benefits end once a veteran completes the program. We found that Veterans Affairs Canada was meeting its service standards for providing timely access to mental health services through the Rehabilitation Program.
The Disability Benefits Program provides life-long access to benefits, and requires that veterans provide evidence that they have a permanent mental health condition that was caused or aggravated by military service. We found that from the veterans’ perspective, about 20 percent had to wait more than 8 months, from the first point of contact, for the Department to confirm their eligibility to access the specialized mental health services paid for by the Department.
Veterans Affairs Canada needs to do more to overcome the barriers that slow down the decision as to whether veterans are eligible for support provided through the Disability Benefits Program. These barriers are a complex application process, delays in obtaining medical and service records from National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, and long wait times for getting access to mental health care professionals in government-funded operational stress injury clinics.
We noted that 65 percent of veterans (843 of 1,297) who challenged denial of eligibility decisions for disability benefits were successful. While the Department knows that most successful challenges rely on new information or testimony, it has not analyzed how the process could be improved to obtain this information prior to rendering decisions upon first application.
In this audit, we also looked at what Veterans Affairs Canada is doing to increase awareness among various stakeholder groups of the supports it makes available to veterans. We found that the Department delivered a variety of outreach activities that target its existing clients and soldiers being released from military service. However, it could have done more to reach other groups who can encourage veterans to seek help, in particular family doctors and families of veterans.
Veterans Affairs Canada agreed with our recommendations. An action plan was posted by the Department on their website and has set implementation deadlines ranging from December 2014 to March 2016.
Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the Committee may have. Thank you.