Mental Health Support for Members—Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Opening Statement to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts

Mental Health Support for Members—Royal Canadian Mounted Police

(Report 4—2017 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada)

31 May 2017

Michael Ferguson, Chartered Professional AccountantCPA, Chartered AccountantCA
Fellow of the Order of Chartered AccountantsFCA (New Brunswick)
Auditor General of Canada

Mr. Chair, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our spring 2017 report on mental health support for members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Joining me at the table is Joanne Butler, the Principal responsible for the audit.

In May 2014, the Royal Canadian Mounted PoliceRCMP introduced its five-year Mental Health Strategy to contribute to a psychologically healthy and safe workplace, and to provide greater support to its employees. The strategy defined mental health as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her own community.”

Our audit focused on whether RCMP members had access to mental health support that met their needs. We examined selected mental health programs and services that supported two key areas of the RCMP’s Mental Health Strategy: early detection and intervention, and continuous improvement.

We concluded that overall, members of the RCMP did not have access to mental health support that met their needs. The RCMP took the important step of introducing a mental health strategy. However, it did not make implementation of the selected mental health programs and services a priority, and it did not commit the necessary resources to support them. Therefore, these programs and services were only partially implemented.

Through our representative file review, we found that although 57 percent of members received easy and timely access to the mental health support they needed, 16 percent did not. For 27 percent of members, the RCMP did not have records that allowed us to assess whether they received the help they needed when they needed it.

Support for members does not stop with providing access to mental health treatment. Health services staff and members’ supervisors are responsible for monitoring and supporting members while they are on off-duty sick leave and when they are ready to return to work. However, we found that members’ supervisors and health services staff did not always monitor members on leave as they were supposed to, and they did not adequately support members when they were ready to return to work. Some members told us that this lack of support exacerbated their mental health conditions and delayed their return to work. We found that one in five members who sought mental health support from a health services office did not return to work or took a discharge from the RCMP.

Finally, we found that the RCMP did not have performance measures to evaluate its Mental Health Strategy and to ensure that it worked as intended to support members’ needs. The organization did not have a quality assurance framework or monitor its activities to support continuous improvement. As a result, the RCMP did not systematically collect or report information on the results of the programs and services designed to support the strategy.

For the strategy to succeed, the RCMP must know whether the programs and services meet members’ needs, provide value for money, and reduce negative personal and organizational impacts.

These findings matter because the RCMP is only as strong as its members. If the organization does not effectively manage members’ mental health and support their return to work, members will struggle to carry out their duties, their confidence in the RCMP may be undermined, and the RCMP’s effectiveness may be reduced. Ultimately, the poor mental health of some members can affect the RCMP’s capacity to serve and protect Canadians.

The Mental Health Strategy is important for the RCMP, for Canadians, and for the government as a whole, and it has to succeed. The problems we identified must be fixed to ensure the strategy’s successful implementation. The RCMP is in the third year of the strategy, and there is still an opportunity to make the necessary improvements.

We are pleased to report that the RCMP has agreed with our seven recommendations.

Mr. Chair, this concludes my opening remarks. We would be pleased to answer any questions the Committee may have. Thank you.