Twenty years of being a shoulder to lean on

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This article was published 24/10/2024 (719 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the psychological trauma he’d accumulated at work began to affect Frank Emond’s life at home, he knew it was time to seek help.

“I was angry. I did a lot of crying behind closed doors and even while shopping with my wife,” said Emond, who served with the Canadian Armed Forces for 38 years and put in 15 more years at the Department of National Defence.

“It was enough of that. So I said to myself, ‘Let’s move forward,’” the retired chief warrant officer said.

Four years ago, Emond found support at the operational stress injury clinic at Winnipeg’s Deer Lodge Centre, which celebrated its 20th anniversary Thursday.

He marked the milestone by thanking the staff for the “huge impact” they have made on his life.

“The work I had done for so many years took me down,” he told a team of clinicians gathered at the centre. “Coming to the (operational stress injury) clinic was exactly what I needed to do.”

The 25-person clinic serves veterans and active members of the Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP in Manitoba, northwestern Ontario and Nunavut. It offers psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy and education services for patients and their families to help them address injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from the line of duty.

Its team of psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health therapists, nurse therapists and occupational therapists helped 1,153 clients in 10,740 sessions last year, said Cyd Courchesne, the chief medical officer for Veterans Affairs Canada.

The clinic was among the first of its kind when it launched in 2004 and is now one of the top-performing facilities in the national operational stress injury network that includes 10 permanent clinics and 11 satellite sites, Courchesne said.

“These services are needed and appreciated… The work you do makes a real difference in the lives of your clients and their families,” said Courchesne, who presented the facility with a certificate of recognition on behalf of Ginette Petitpas Taylor, the veterans affairs minister.

Arle Jones, the chief operating officer of Deer Lodge, also presented the clinic with a plaque to recognize its two decades of service.

Jones, who assumed leadership of the centre a few months ago, said she immediately realized the importance of the “crucial, specialized mental health services” provided at the clinic.

“One of the unique things about our clinic that you won’t find in the public system is we truly have an interdisciplinary team,” said Chris Zegalski, the clinic’s director of health services.

“In the community often, you’re actually referring (patients) outside the clinic. Here, you’re walking down the hall and then we can get someone involved really quickly,” he said. “Once they come here, there is no long wait for service and they get help almost immediately, so that makes me happy.”

It is important to have quick and unilateral care in a single facility because turning someone away, referring them elsewhere or asking them to return for help at another time can have devastating consequences, Emond said.

“There are commanding officers who did not realize their people were broken because they did not believe in it,” he told the Free Press. “To me, it is important to provide that listening ear. Nothing will provide more support to that individual.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca