Nearly one million Canadians are either veterans or active in the military. Unique physical, mental and social contexts of military service intimately define how military personnel, veterans and their families deal with health throughout their life course. Currently, the number of Canadian Forces casualties and the breadth of health problems arising from military operations are greater than at any time since the Korean War. Military and veterans’ physical, mental and social health challenges are so diverse that the research needed to understand and meet them must be equally diverse.
Earlier this year, the Royal Military College of Canada, in partnership with Queen’s University, announced the first Canadian forum on military and veteran health research. The objective of the forum is to engage and invigorate support across Canada to establish a national research program related to protecting the health of military personnel and examining the numerous health complications that occur throughout the life course as a result of military service to Canada.
In addition to battlefield medicine, areas of research that will be presented include mental health, chronic pain, human mobility, trauma, epidemiology, family health, occupational health, brain injury, disability, environmental exposure, among others. Much of this research has relevance to the health care of Canadians in general, to other “first responders,” and for those who experience severe trauma. The forum program has been developed with advice over the past year from the staff of the Surgeon General of the Canadian Forces, Commodore Hans Jung, and the research director of Veterans Affairs Canada, Dr. David Pedlar.
In response to a call for abstracts, approximately 140 abstracts were submitted, representing researchers from some 20 universities and 20 health-related agencies across Canada. Abstracts were also received from researchers in the United States and the United Kingdom. The outcome is a program that includes more than 100 scientific oral and poster presentations. Furthermore, the forum itself reached registration capacity of 250 more than a month in advance of commencement.
Canada is alone among our major military allies in not having a fully coordinated national research program in military and veteran health. Australia, the U.K. and, of course, the U.S. established military and veteran health research institutes several years ago. Within Canada, there is dispersed national academic interest and expertise to address some of these issues, but no existing mechanism to harness this capacity in a coherent and coordinated fashion.
In response to the Surgeon General’s long-standing concept and effort to generate interest among academia in establishing a national military health research consortium to supplement the military’s health research program, the forum will be a catalyst to bring the universities together to establish a sustainable research relationship across Canada.
In support of this goal, Queen’s University has worked with RMC to develop a preliminary framework for a pan-Canadian institute that would work together on this national effort. The institute would be national in scope with a mandate to harness research capacity in military and veteran health. The institute would be structured on a consortium of willing partners in universities from across Canada. The Kingston universities are in the early stages of approaching universities that would be interested in the consortium and at least 12 Canadian universities have already indicated their intent to participate; many others are currently being approached.
The vision of the institute would be to conduct multi-disciplinary, leading edge research related to the health and well-being of military personnel, veterans and their families, spanning their life course. This objective will be achieved by supporting the development of research capacity in military and veteran health within academia by facilitating new partnerships, collaborations, funding and access to data and study populations.
The institute will be responsive to the research priorities of the Canadian Forces, Veterans Affairs Canada, and veteran organizations, in studying the service-related health of military personnel, veterans and their families and in seeking to address short- and long-term health concerns. Additionally, as research in this area matures and broadens it will expand to benefit occupations similar to the military, including first responders (police, fire, emergency services) and humanitarian workers or others engaged in conflict zones.
Building on the success of the first Canadian Military and Veteran Health Research Forum, the establishment of the institute represents an essential step in building capacity in military and veteran health research in Canada. Canadians are immensely proud of their military and they wish to re-assure those who serve Canada so well, that they will meet the obligations inherent in the “social covenant” between the soldier/veteran and the nation.
Brigadier-General (Ret’d) William S. Richard, MPA, is an Adjunct Professor, Queen’s University and Jason Schmelzle, MSc, is a Research Associate with the Office of the Vice-Principal (Research), Queen’s University.
Forum Information The Canadian Military & Veteran Health Research Forum 2010, hosted by the Royal Military College and Queen’s University, will be held on November 16-17 in Kingston, Ontario: www.queensu.ca/conferences/mvhr