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The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group will become home to NATO’s first research chair in military mental health, a job described as a “sacred trust” by the senior military psychiatrist who will take it on.
Col. Rakesh Jetly, senior psychiatrist with the Canadian Armed Forces and mental health adviser to the surgeon general, said there is work to do to improve care and treatment for those who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and other combat stress injuries.
That will be the focus of some of the research at the new Canadian Military and Veterans mental Health Centre, also announced Thursday.
Jetly said there is work to be done on research that will translate into new treatments for those with PTSD. Canada will work with NATO partners to share the research and collaborate.
“We read about people who remain ill years after service. It is because the treatments that we have today don’t work 100 per cent of the time on 100 per cent of people and that is what we hope to advance here,” said Jetly.
The chair will be named after Brig. Jonathan Meakins, the founding president of the Royal College of Physicians who was one of the world’s first post-traumatic stress disorder researchers during the First World War.
Jetly said there are lessons for today in some of the research Meakins did. He found that gas was a psychological weapon during the Great War, in that that many more people were psychologically damaged by the terror of gas attacks than those who were physically injured.
The same is true, said Jetly, of the improvised explosive devices used in Afghanistan that wounded about 150 people, but caused psychological damage to thousands of people.
“Enemies that can’t face you in a traditional way try to undermine your fighting force psychologically.”
The research into military mental health is a partnership between the Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal with support from General Dynamics Canada, a major military supply company, whose representatives attended the announcement. General Dynamics contributed $500,000 to the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research last month, some of which will support the new research chair.
“The chair’s mandate will be supported not only by the Royal Ottawa, but by funding from General Dynamics Canada,” said Surgeon General, Brig.-Gen. Jean-Robert Bernier.
General Dynamics, he added, “has the nobel distinction” of being the first non-government and non-university partner of the Kingston-based Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Mental Health Research, “from which our ability to look after our patients benefits so much.”
James Bezan, parliamentary secretary to Minister of National Defence Rob Nicholson, dismissed questions about whether the funding from a company that competes for Canadian military contracts represents a conflict.
“They are not going to be working directly with our military in any way, shape or form. They are just providing money to a foundation that then gives it to scientists who work in collaboration with DND,” he said.
“Some people say,” he added, “that there ought to be social and corporate responsibility by all Canadians to participate in funding organizations like the Royal that are conducting great research not only for men and women in uniform and veterans but for all Canadians. Anything we can do to encourage more financing and funding of this type of research, the quicker we can get help to those who need it.”
Research of the kind announced Thursday will be a “game changer” in military mental health, said George Weber, CEO of The Royal.
“We know that recovery is possible. We have seen soldiers get better and families too.”
epayne@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
Col. Rakesh Jetly, senior psychiatrist with the Canadian Armed Forces and mental health adviser to the surgeon general, said there is work to do to improve care and treatment for those who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and other combat stress injuries.
That will be the focus of some of the research at the new Canadian Military and Veterans mental Health Centre, also announced Thursday.
Jetly said there is work to be done on research that will translate into new treatments for those with PTSD. Canada will work with NATO partners to share the research and collaborate.
“We read about people who remain ill years after service. It is because the treatments that we have today don’t work 100 per cent of the time on 100 per cent of people and that is what we hope to advance here,” said Jetly.
The chair will be named after Brig. Jonathan Meakins, the founding president of the Royal College of Physicians who was one of the world’s first post-traumatic stress disorder researchers during the First World War.
Jetly said there are lessons for today in some of the research Meakins did. He found that gas was a psychological weapon during the Great War, in that that many more people were psychologically damaged by the terror of gas attacks than those who were physically injured.
The same is true, said Jetly, of the improvised explosive devices used in Afghanistan that wounded about 150 people, but caused psychological damage to thousands of people.
“Enemies that can’t face you in a traditional way try to undermine your fighting force psychologically.”
The research into military mental health is a partnership between the Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal with support from General Dynamics Canada, a major military supply company, whose representatives attended the announcement. General Dynamics contributed $500,000 to the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research last month, some of which will support the new research chair.
“The chair’s mandate will be supported not only by the Royal Ottawa, but by funding from General Dynamics Canada,” said Surgeon General, Brig.-Gen. Jean-Robert Bernier.
General Dynamics, he added, “has the nobel distinction” of being the first non-government and non-university partner of the Kingston-based Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Mental Health Research, “from which our ability to look after our patients benefits so much.”
James Bezan, parliamentary secretary to Minister of National Defence Rob Nicholson, dismissed questions about whether the funding from a company that competes for Canadian military contracts represents a conflict.
“They are not going to be working directly with our military in any way, shape or form. They are just providing money to a foundation that then gives it to scientists who work in collaboration with DND,” he said.
“Some people say,” he added, “that there ought to be social and corporate responsibility by all Canadians to participate in funding organizations like the Royal that are conducting great research not only for men and women in uniform and veterans but for all Canadians. Anything we can do to encourage more financing and funding of this type of research, the quicker we can get help to those who need it.”
Research of the kind announced Thursday will be a “game changer” in military mental health, said George Weber, CEO of The Royal.
“We know that recovery is possible. We have seen soldiers get better and families too.”
epayne@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
