GUYSBOROUGH, N.S. — In the wake of Thursday’s revelations at the Desmond fatality inquiry, the Union of Veterans Affairs Employees is warning that without changes, similar incidents could happen again.
“I have written to the prime minister and the minister of veterans affairs raising concerns about growing wait times and the backlog of case files,” Virginia Vaillancourt, president of the union representing Veterans Affairs case workers, said Friday.
“I’ve (written to) them before, during and after the election, trying to get them to understand that the number of case files (case managers) are working with is not an appropriate number for them to provide the level of service that our complex clients require.”
On Thursday, the inquiry heard that Afghan War veteran Lionel Desmond was released from a two-month inpatient stay at St. Anne’s Hospital in Quebec despite his doctors knowing that he still suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. There was no followup by Veterans Affairs Canada with Desmond for three months after he returned to his family in Upper Big Tracadie.
That followup eventually came in the form of an appointment with a private psychotherapist in Antigonish who was not provided background on Desmond’s complex mental health struggles stemming from head injuries during his military services and post-traumatic stress disorder from his tour on the front lines of the Afghan War a decade earlier.
That psychotherapist, Catherine Chambers, broke into tears on the stand as Judge Warren Zimmer read her a summary of the extensive further assessment and supports psychiatric staff at St. Anne’s Hospital told Veterans Affairs Desmond would need.
“I want you to have an appreciation of what was known at the time he was discharged,” Zimmer told Chambers.
“What was coming to you without you having any idea of who was coming to sit in your office.”
On Friday, Vaillancourt said that Veterans Affairs case managers are responsible for anywhere from 30 to 60 clients, some of whom (like Desmond) have complex mental health struggles. She wants Veterans Affairs to hire more staffers to bring client loads down to a maximum of 25 veterans per case worker.
Ian Slater, a psychiatrist at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital, who saw Desmond after he showed up at the emergency department on Oct. 24, 2016, resorted to asking the veteran to get his own medical records from Veterans Affairs Canada because he had no idea how to obtain them.
But Veterans Affairs Canada doesn’t maintain a database of the medical records of its veterans – those are scattered across the various provincially-run facilities where they have sought care. In Lionel Desmond’s case, the records were at facilities in three different provinces.
Case managers assigned to veterans are meant to co-ordinate care.
But Vaillancourt said Friday that those case managers are overwhelmed.
She pointed out that the number of veterans seeking financial assistance rose to 40,000 last November from 11,000 in the same month one year earlier. More than one third of them had been in the queue more than 16 weeks.
“That unfortunately leaves veterans and their families in extremely stressful situations – it makes lives difficult for them and those who are trying to serve them,” said Vallaincourt.
Four and a half months after Desmond was released from St. Anne’s Hospital, he legally bought a rifle and used it to kill his wife, Shanna, daughter, Aaliyah, and mother, Brenda, in their Upper Big Tracadie home. He then took his own life.
Veterans Affairs would not comment Friday on the union's demand for more case workers.
"We appreciate that for many employees in the department, the subject of this fatality inquiry is difficult – especially for frontline employees who work hard each day to serve veterans and their families. Veterans Affairs Canada will continue to provide staff with support as the inquiry proceeds," Veterans Affairs spokesman Josh Bueckert said in an email.
He noted there will be witnesses testifying at the Desmond inquiry from Veterans Affairs and the military.
"We cannot provide further comment in order to respect the integrity of the inquiry process," Bueckert said.
"We would also note that veterans should not hesitate to seek assistance if they are experiencing negative health effects. We encourage veterans to seek assistance from VAC, their health care practitioner, or other supports available in their community."
