Military launches mental health campaign

Military launches mental health campaign

Despite criticism, general says system still one of the world's best

By David Pugliese, The Ottawa CitizenJune 25, 2009

The head of the Canadian Forces will launch a mental-health awareness campaign today as concerns grow that the nation's military personnel are not being cared for properly and that numbers of post-traumatic-stress casualties from Afghanistan could increase in the future.

Gen. Walt Natynczyk, chief of the defence staff, says the system already put in place by the government and military is one of the best in the world.

But the mother of a soldier who committed suicide in Edmonton after enduring mental illness and post-traumatic stress is challenging Natynczyk's claims.

"Obviously it's not one of the best in the world if we have soldiers dying," said Sheila Fynes, mother of Cpl. Stuart Langridge, referring not only to her son's death but other recent suicides in the military.

"We have met some individuals along the way who are caring people, but the system failed our son before he died and continues to fail his family since."

Langridge was diagnosed with PTSD symptoms as well as depression, and was abusing alcohol and drugs. In a one-year period, he tried to kill himself six times before eventually hanging himself in a barracks at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton last year.
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Military launches mental health campaign