.... Caring for our members and their families is a personal priority, and I take it extremely seriously. More specifically, the CAF leadership team is passionate about ensuring that our personnel who have sacrificed in service to their country receive quality care and support.
The CAF took a tremendous step forward in providing this support when it opened our JPSU in 2009. These JPSUs aim to ensure our ill and injured personnel have proper medical care and leadership, and that support is available and tailored to their needs. While our system continually seeks to improve, it is important to note that success depends largely on an injured member’s commitment and active participation in their recovery.
In recognition of strong Government of Canada and CAF support, the current JPSU budget of $19 million and staff of 350 is being sheltered from reductions despite tightening in other areas.
Currently the JPSU system supports 5400 ill and injured members along with their families. The results have been impressive. From January 2011 to June 2013, 3000 personnel recovered sufficiently to join the Return to Work program, a third of whom returned to full service, with the remainder receiving care, rehabilitation, or support transitioning to civilian life.
Nevertheless, as the Citizen article illustrated, challenges remain. We recognize that the number of members suffering from operational stress injuries will likely continue to increase in the short term. With this in mind, we are working hard to fill vacant public service and military positions to ensure that we have a qualified and experienced professional team in place for our members to depend on.
While we acknowledge that we have not yet reached the optimum solution set, we are striving to fill the gaps to ensure that no one gets left behind on their road to recovery. Providing appropriate resources for this vital support network remains my continuing priority.