Canada Veterans with PTSD tripled since 2002

Veterans Affairs faces triple the number of PTSD cases since 2002
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OTTAWA - The number of former soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress has more than tripled since Canada first deployed troops to Afghanistan, say new figures released by Veterans Affairs Canada.

With the country's involvement in the war set to continue until 2011, the numbers are only expected to get worse.

The rising tide of psychiatric disorders among relatively young men and women is the biggest challenge facing the system of veterans' care, which until recently had been geared toward geriatric issues, said Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson.

"It is the challenge of the future," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Of the 10,252 (Veterans Affairs) clients with a psychiatric condition, 63 per cent have a (post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD) condition, said a briefing note prepared for Thompson last summer.

"Over the past five years, the number of clients with a psychiatric condition has tripled, increasing from 3,501 to 10,252; the number of clients with a PTSD condition has more than tripled, increasing from 1,802 to 6,504 as of March 31, 2007."

The statistics represent those who are no longer serving in uniform. The Defence Department keeps its own, separate tally of members suffering from stress injuries.

Figures obtained last summer by The Canadian Press show that of 1,300 Canadian Forces members who served in Afghanistan since 2005, 28 per cent had symptoms suggestive of one or more mental-health problems. The numbers are based on post-deployment screening.

Of those, just over six per cent were possibly suffering from PTSD and another five per cent showed symptoms of major depression.

Both National Defence and Veterans Affairs have faced repeated warnings during the last year about the looming mental-health crisis.

"Without an aggressive response, many veterans have the potential to harm themselves or others," Veterans Affairs staff wrote in a note to Thompson.

"The earlier the intervention, greater the chances of recovery."

The Conservatives responded in the 2007 federal budget with $9 million, allowing the veterans department to open five operational stress-injury clinics across the country. The new centres are in addition to the Defence Department's existing five stress clinics, which first began appearing in the late 1990s.
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