OPINION: Misconceptions common about veterans and PTSD

In the wake of the Auditor General's most recent report, there has been significant media coverage of PTSD and the mental health of Canada's soldiers and veterans. But one person who runs a charity in support of soldiers with PTSD says the media coverage can actually harm veterans.

Shaun Francis runs a private medical clinic in Toronto, and he's Chair of the True Patriot Love Foundation, a charity that funds research and support programs for veterans with PTSD. Francis was also head of the Veterans Transition Advisory Council, which gave advice to the government on how to better connect veterans with jobs once they leave the service.

In Francis's opinion, the intense media coverage of veterans' mental health issues can actually add to the stigma around PTSD. He says the way members of the media and politicians discuss PTSD can leave employers with the impression that veterans are unstable.

In Canada, you're already starting from a foundation where an employer does not necessarily understand why somebody would even be in the armed forces or what they do in the armed forces.- Shaun Francis, True Patriot Love

"And (there's) this impression that - gosh, those of you have deployed probably have some mental health issue, call it PTSD, and when you come into our workplace after you leave the forces, you may not be the kind of employee we're looking for," he continues.

Francis believes the public overestimates both the prevalence and severity of PTSD among soldiers and veterans.

According to figures from the Department of National Defence, of the soldiers deployed to Afghanistan between 2001 and 2008, 8% have been diagnosed with Afghanistan-related PTSD. A 2013 parliamentary report on the study interprets the statistics on soldier mental health to be in line with the rest of the Canadian population.

Military personnel are recruited on the basis of physical and mental health criteria that make this population one that is at a lower risk than the general population. On the other hand, military personnel are exposed to many more trauma risks than the general population.- Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and the Mental Health of Military Personnel and Veterans, October 2011

The report concludes that "these two factors cancel each other out and the end result is that the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among military personnel tends to be comparable to that of the general population."

The solution, according to Francis, is for members of the media and politicians to more frequently cite statistics when discussing veterans, mental health, and PTSD. "It's complicated to communicate in an average sound bite, or in our halls of parliament, or a newspaper article. It's hard. But we need to get this sort of information out there, to not diminish the issue in any respect, but to put it in perspective so that we're not diminishing the overall brand of our soldiers and sailors."