MPs say Canada’s military needs to do more to improve mental health care

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Afghanistan veteran Cpl. Jamie MacWhirter, right, poses for a photo with his wife Vanessa at home in Goulds, N.L. on July 30, 2013. Cpl. Jamie MacWhirter has been through the nightmares and angry outbursts of post-traumatic stress disorder since serving in Afghanistan in 2006. The House of Commons defence committee is urging the military to do more to help soldiers deal with mental health issues. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly

OTTAWA – The House of Commons defence committee is urging the military to do more to help soldiers deal with mental health issues.

The committee says there should be rigorous mental health screening of recruits.

In its latest report, the committee also says more should be done to educate families about mental health issues before soldiers deploy.

It recommends that before soldiers are sent into the field they should get more education about what are called operational stress injuries.

And it says the military should improve the way it trains soldiers to assess themselves for potential mental health issues.

The committee produced 32 recommendations from its study of how the Forces deal with the sick and injured.

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