Bosnian War Veteran James McLean returned home only to face a battle of a different kind – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“You can’t go anywhere... you can’t trust people... you’re always on the edge,” he said.
But McLean is pleased to hear about the federal government’s $200-million investment over six years to expand mental health services and research for Canada’s veterans.
McLean suffered for 10 years without knowing he had PTSD and says there are many others like him who don’t get the help they need.
“There’s a lot of soldiers that don’t even know they have it. They try to pretend they don’t have it… and then they kill themselves,” he said.
Those are the type of tragedies the federal government is hoping to stop with their new pledge.
Some of the money will go towards opening eight stress injury clinics across to country while another portion will go towards helping those currently serving in the military and their families.
The Department of Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces also announced that more than $16-million in ongoing funds will be used for research.
“The complexities of mental health are changing and evolving and so too must our response,” said Minister of Veterans Affairs Julian Fantino.
This funding pledge come on the heels of a revelation that more than $1-billion went unspent by Veteran’s Affairs over the past seven years.
Fantino says that while these residual costs have to be returned to the treasury, it eventually does go towards helping veterans.
“This is all a technical kind of too and fro in the budgeting process of government… it’s part of how government operates,” Fantino said.
Veteran Morris Ferris finds that unsettling.
“That money could have been spent better on getting the veterans their health back,” he said.
