Veteran’s bureaucratic mental health odyssey a whole other war
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For Perry Gray, a retired Canadian Armed Forces captain, a trip to Ottawa’s Veterans Affairs district office is comparable to going to the dentist — he becomes anxiety ridden and ready to defend himself. “Instead of feeling like I’m about to get additional help I’m left with fear that I’m going to be rejected again, it changes my whole character when I go into the office. I’m anxious, I might suffer from migraine headaches, I find it difficult to think straight, I develop a serious stutter, and it’s easy for me to go from being frustrated to angry,” said Gray. Gray joined the military in 1976 and served overseas in the intelligence branch, working on international operations in former Yugoslavia, Kosovo in 1999, and four tours in Cyprus, where Gray was the Canadian contingent commander in the United Nations headquarters. He was released from the military after being diagnosed with PTSD in 2002 while working with military intelligence in Ottawa and he’s been fighting for an accurate assessment of his medical condition ever since. As far back as 2005, Gray testified before the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs – and there he voiced his concerns about Veterans Affairs’ assessment of his disability. Gray told iPolitics that Veterans Affairs Canada [VAC] acknowledged that he has two mental disorders. “One is classified as a stress and anxiety disorder and the other is depression – but they won’t consider them as anything but one basic general classification.” Gray was back on Parliament Hill last week, reiterating that his mental disabilities still haven’t been properly assessed. “For many clients, it is hard to concentrate on draining the swamp, when you are up to your neck in alligators,” Gray told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs. His testimony comes at a time when Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole, who replaced the embattled Julian Fantino in January, has been trying to re-set the Harper government’s fraught relationship with Canada’s veterans with a slew of election-year promises, many of which are designed to provide better service to disabled veterans. Gray spoke at the committee as a client of VAC, as a former secretary of the Career Medical Board for Non-Commissioned Members, and also on behalf of his organization Veteran Voice — a website dedicated to information for veterans. “Based on the VAC assessment, it would seem that my status was considered minor and I could work full time with some limitations. This was clearly at odds with the military assessment of severe disability,” said Gray. He said he was “lowballed,” which means given a much lower disability level than what he deserved. Liberal Veterans Affairs critic Frank Valeriote said the threshold for veterans to qualify for disabilities is too high. “Most people find themselves in the lowest level of qualification, and by being kept at the lower level they’re given the least amount of money,” said Valeriote. Gray said the military assessed his PTSD as ‘very severe’. “I had memory loss, I developed a stutter, I found it very difficult to do a lot of activities and I basically cold not work. After becoming a VAC client, Gray expected his medical condition to remain assessed as ‘very severe,’ but it was downgraded to ‘minor.’ Eventually, his status was upgraded to severe, but Gray feels that ‘very severe’ is a more accurate description of his symptoms. “When I’m not having a good day, basically I experience profound psychiatric impairment and I can have a period of depression that will last for weeks,” said Gray. “Mr. Gray is an example of so many complaints that have been registered over the past couple of years. These people should not have to beg for the benefits they require and deserve,” said Liberal MP and veterans critic Frank Valeriote. According to Gray, VAC said he’s exhausted all of his options in terms of appealing the status of his disability – his very last option being the federal court – which he’s not pursuing because the high cost. The committee also heard that Gray’s medical records have been shared by over 700 VAC employees, and he said it’s an invasion of his privacy. VAC needs to have a better method to determine the severity of veterans’ injuries, whether they’re physical or mental, Gray insisted. Gray urged MPs at the committee that VAC should not be allowed to determine whether or not a medical condition is a result of military service — that only DND should make these assessments. “It should never be necessary to confirm severe medical conditions, like loss of legs. VAC should not be allowed to deny services and intimidate clients as I was.”
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