$30M TO HELP TREAT PTSI
Public safety personnel endure stress
University of Regina psychology professor Nicholas Carleton has hardly slept since the federal budget on Tuesday.
Carleton, also scientific director for the Canadian Institute of Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT) at the U of R, has been tossing and turning with excitement since he found out millions of dollars in new federal funding for post-traumatic stress injuries is on its way.
Ralph Goodale, minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, announced in Regina on Friday $30 million to provide increased mental health support for public safety personnel, especially women on the front lines.
Over five years, $20 million will support a new national research consortium between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and CIPSRT to focus on post-traumatic stress injuries. A further $10 million has been earmarked over five years for Public Safety Canada to work with CIPSRT to develop an internet-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy pilot program.
Additionally, $21 million is being provided to bolster mental health support systems throughout the RCMP.
The funding for the force announced on Friday is in addition to a $8.9-million contract the federal government awarded to the U of R in December to cover the first three years of a research study that will look at the impact of stress on RCMP officers.
Carleton is leading a multidisciplinary research team of experts from across Canada and the United States to identify the factors that lead to psychological trauma and stress-related disorders, including post-traumatic stress.
The latest funding will provide an opportunity for much-needed research and programs for public safety personnel across the country, he said.
“That includes our firefighters, our paramedics, our police officers, our correctional workers, our dispatchers, our call centre workers and so many more,” Carleton said.
An estimated 70,000 Canadian tri-service officers — police, firefighters and paramedics — have suffered from PTSI.
Historically, the focus on public safety personnel has been quite minimal, Carleton said.
“We didn’t recognize until relatively recently as a community just how significant the need was,” he said.
His team’s recent research indicates women are reporting higher rates of PTSI symptoms. However there’s no available evidence to suggest women are more vulnerable than men, he said.
“That warrants substantial additional research so that we can provide the resources that are necessary to make sure we are supporting these critical members of society,” Carleton said.
The new support addresses the “glaring deficiencies” of past funding and acknowledges “the superb expertise” at CIPSRT, Goodale said.
“It’s important to make sure that we’re keeping safe the people that we rely on to keep everybody else safe,” he said.
The research will be done in collaboration with first responders.
“We’ll be relying on their judgment to help design the research programs and particularly to design the treatment programs so that if you are in a rural or remote location and you are suffering in silence from the impacts of PTSI, you will be able to get at least some of the help you need on the internet and it will be readily accessible, right in your own home,” Goodale said.
Friday was a great day for all first responders, exclaimed Brenda Lucki, assistant commissioner and commanding officer of the RCMP’s “Depot” division.
“It’s a great day, first of all, because we’re actually talking about mental health in a loud voice and not a whisper,” she said. “For many years it has been a whisper.”
Lucki hopes research will answer questions about why posttraumatic stress injuries impact some people more than others.
“Sometimes we build resiliency and until something happens we honestly don’t know how we’re affected,” Lucki said. “Personally, I think I’ve been very fortunate. But PTSD is a dark cloud underneath the ground that sometimes doesn’t even come out until the worst of circumstances.
“If we can figure that out and figure out why some people are more resilient than others, then of course we’ll be able to help others.”