Process of Mental Health Treatment

TOS

Mental Health in the Canadian Armed Forces

You’re not alone

Maj Paul Sedge
Psychiatrist

Soldiers have to believe that mental health care is available. Our goal is to provide comprehensive therapy and the best available, evidence-based, care we can with the goal being that every patient will make it back and become full fighting members of the Canadian Forces and carry on and have a full career

Sub-Lieutenant Marianne Knai
Social Worker

The Canadian Forces mental Health Program is a program where the professionals work in a multi-disciplinary environment. What this means is that the social workers, psychologists, psychiatrist, physicians – in fact, the entire health team – work together to ensure the well-being of their clients.

Elizabeth Cyr
Social Worker

If a member calls in, or comes in, and is asking for mental health treatment or mental health support we would first of all ask them some questions and do a preliminary assessment just to find out a little bit more about them, a little bit more about the situation and figure out what the best course of action would be

Doctor Marie-Claude Robinson
Psychologist

The purpose of the therapeutic process is to identify the problem from the start: when someone is able to understand and identify a problem, it’s much easier to establish a treatment plan. And the aim of treatment plans - the therapeutic objective - is to develop the skills that people need to regain control of their lives. They can then deal with the symptoms, which can be excruciating, and return to society, to the workplace and to their families.

Doctor Jan Wilson
Psychologist

The big umbrella therapy that most psychologists use nowadays is called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which is just a fancy word for saying that we’re looking at the interaction of your thoughts, your behaviours and your emotions. So most of the time when people come in they want help because they’re feeling sad or anxious or angry and they want to work on that but it’s very difficult to directly manipulate how you are feeling.

Major Paul Sedge
Psychiatrist

We do an assessment, come up with a treatment plan which is often multidisciplinary, we usually don’t just use meds. We may start medications we may refer them to a clinical social worker or a psychologist for therapy. We may refer them to an addictions counsellor to do an addictions assessment or for addictions treatment or any of a number of group programs.

Captain Meghan Wilson
General Duty Medical Officer

So as a Medical Officer our role involves referring patients to additional mental health services such as social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, padres… in addition, while a member is being followed for any mental health problems they are still with us, so we are the continuity of care, we are the ones who are following the member every step of the way.

Captain Heather Pay
Primary Care Nurse

It starts as soon as they come through the door. We have a very robust case management team who work with a lot of our patients. Our med Techs are all trained in being able to identify when somebody is potentially having a crisis. Our clinicians are always open door and they stay with the patients until the patient has received definitive care.

Lieutenant (Navy) Nicolette Cornect
Mental Health Nurse

Front-line, we have a walk-in system here… services for our clients to be able to access a mental health nurse, a social worker, and other people in our team without a doctor’s referral.

Leading Seaman Craig Lockwood
Medical Technician

A lot of the guys, or the women out there, usually feel pretty comfortable coming to the med tech. They know that we’re there to talk. So if someone has concerns or they feel agitated, things like that, we’re the ones who will actually be the first eyes-on.

Jeremy Mayer
Base Addictions Counsellor

The help that I offer…it really depends on the individual. If it’s someone who wants to go from abusing alcohol to what the directives refer to as low-risk drinking and solve their problems that way, well… sometimes I’m like a coach, I’ll say, “When you drink like that, it’s abuse, look what’s going on…”. My goal really is to make them aware.

Marie Pichette
Social Worker

One of the most important things that will happen that will make therapy successful is the therapeutic alliance you have with the patient. So if that doesn’t work, if it doesn’t click, you need to, if you feel comfortable, address it with the person to say look this is just not working for us. We’ll try to make it work we’ll try  to find solutions together but if at the end of the day you’re just not comfortable, it doesn’t click, it’s my responsibility as a therapist to find someone else for you.

Major Denis Bujold
Chaplain

The unit chaplains act as first-line intervenors, since they’re always working with members of the unit…and since they’re a constant presence they’re sometimes able to notice when something’s wrong with an individual, especially when that person may be shy about asking for help.

Major Paul Sedge
Psychiatrist

Probably the majority of people who come into mental health are seen through our psycho-social services. So they don’t need to go through a medical officer, they don’t need to see a physicians assistant or a nurse practitioner, they don’t need to see the shrink. They can come in with their problem-set and if it’s that primary, that lower layer, the psycho-social stuff, or dealing with other stressors in their life and get seen usually within a week or two to begin counselling with one of our well trained social workers or mental health nurses.

Lieutenant (Navy) Nicolette Cornect
Mental Health Nurse

Myself, I have deployed to Afghanistan and Bosnia, working collaboratively with the team there. We're typically deployed as a small Mental Health team consisting of a psychiatrist, a social worker, and a nurse.

Captain Meghan Wilson
General Duty Medical Officer

Mental illness can happen to anybody. No matter how many years of service you have, whether you’re old or young, experienced or inexperienced. Nobody is immune.

Sub-Lieutenant Marianne Knai
Social Worker

The longer we wait the more complicated the problem becomes and the more time we will need to resolve it.

Captain Heather Pay
Primary Care Nurse

You’re not alone, it’s not something that you see as normal, but it’s something that if you don’t let us know that there is something wrong, we can’t help you.

Leading Seaman Craig Lockwood
Medical Technician

Let us know what’s going on. Feel free to speak your mind. Be blunt about it. We’re here just to listen, and to help.

Elizabeth Cyr
Social Worker

If you’re wondering if you should talk to somebody in mental health, if you’re wondering if there are services to help you. There are.

Major Paul Sedge
Psychiatrist

The message we have to get out here is one of hope. Resources are available and treatment can be effective, and I think given what their job is, what we ask of our men and women of the CF, we owe it to them to provide the best care possible.

TOS

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