Society's Tragic Stress Solutions

Canada's opposition parties have consistently screamed foul! accusing the Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper of cold indifference to the plight of Canadian troops returned from their Afghanistan mission, with a percentage of the military afflicted by psychological trauma, another group coming home with wounds suffered while on active duty abroad.

Taking their cue from the shrill cries of blame from the NDP and the Liberals, the Canadian media have enjoyed the opportunities presented to do their subjective research digging up 'proof' that returning Afghan veterans have been given short shrift, their medical needs for their physical and mental conditions inadequately cared for. Our returning heroes, goes the refrain, have given their all in the line of duty to their country and their country abandons them in their hour of need.

The Department of National Defence and the government have responded repeatedly, pointing out that it is a high priority to ensure that all required support is available to returning troops. Pointing out as well that there is a need for those returning from their missions who find themselves unable to cope with the mental strains of the trauma they had undergone to seek assistance; it is there for that purpose.

A culture is seen to exist within the military that inhibits those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from revealing themselves for fear of being sidelined. Within the military there are provisions for those struggling to maintain themselves to be given duties commensurate with their abilities to perform them while undergoing treatment. On the other hand there is also a standard requirement for the military to be staffed with fully able-bodied service people, capable of dispatching their military duties when the occasion is called for.

Those who have undergone treatment for physical and mental remediation and remain incapable of fulfilling that obligation are, understandably, relieved from duty and must leave the military through full honourable discharge. A military can only be effective if its members are capable of performing the functions for which they have been trained, understandably.

Shaun Francis, a co-chair of the True Patriot Love Expedition to the Magnetic North Pole whose purpose is to raise awareness of the physical and mental injuries that impact Canadian soldiers, and who is also chair of the True Patriot Love Foundation, a support group focusing on the needs of Canada's military men and women and their families wrote an interesting article recently.

In it he pointed out that the Canadian Forces conducted a study of a battle group out of Canadian Forces Base Gagetown - "surveying the 792 members of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment four years after the group had served in Afghanistan. The survey revealed that 23.1% of the soldiers were being treated for mental health issues, four years after their deployment. And approximately 20% had been diagnosed with PTSD.

"It's easy to blame the soldier suicides (nine recent suicides) on the Afghanistan mission, and PTSD. Just like it's easy to blame deficiencies in mental health care provided by the Canadian Forces. The trouble is, the reality is more complicated." He mentions the Surgeon-General's Mental Health Strategy which noted that the second-most frequent cause of death for Canadian men aged 15 to 34 is suicide, a societal problem.

One that occurs at a lower rate in the Canadian Forces than in the general population.

A fact little spoken of in news items focusing on the suicides of depressed and suicidal military personnel and obviously for the simple reason that it would have the effect of defusing part of the argument that the Government of Canada is insufficiently involved in the welfare of members of the Canadian armed forces; unwilling to spend the required dollars, unwilling to invest the time and the expertise required to aid those in distress.

In the United States, the military suicide rate has doubled in the last ten years, while Canada's has remained stable since 1996. In part, points out Mr. Francis, due to the "excellent men and women who work in our military's health services. We'd prefer that our military not have any suicides. But they do happen, and sometimes they cluster together. And when they do happen in the Canadian Forces, it is not always due to Afghanistan, or PTSD."

"A report on the 38 suicides that happened in calendar years 2011 and 2012 found that only 50% of the cases had deployed in support of the mission Afghanistan. Of the Canadian Forces members who had sought help for mental health disorders before their suicides, the two most common diagnoses were major depression and substance abuse, each of which affected 21.1% of the causes.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was third, at 18.5%. And relationship failure or conflict was identified as a precipitating factor in nearly half of the CF personnel who died by suicide during that time period."

In short, the stresses, tensions and disorders that accompany peoples' lives in general have a bearing on these outcomes. It is how people tend to deal with the issues in their lives that upset and bedevil their capacity to endure the problems and arrive at solutions, or decide which avenues of coping conduct to use that also determines the outcomes, and whether they may be sufficiently resilient to go on with their lives.

If an individual is already stressed through the disintegration of a core personal, intimate relationship, and seeks comfort in drugs or alcohol, degrading their ability to function adequately, and then also must perform to the best of their professional military ability, the overload outcomes can be disastrous for some individuals. The medical services available to people through the Department of National Defence cannot solve all personal problems.

Canadian Forces personnel can access arguably the most comprehensive health program in the country. But everything has its limits. There are times and conditions when intervention simply is not successful when individuals consider the strains they live under are too great for them to cope with any longer. And not every one of those desperately ill people determined to end it all can be scooped up in a caring web of healing.