Q and A: Helping wounded soldiers get their lives back

When the federal government fails to provide wounded Canadian soldiers with the help they need, Scott Maxwell steps in.

The executive director of Wounded Warriors Canada, Maxwell presides over a Whitby-based charity charged with helping soldiers learn to live with catastrophic injuries and deal with the sometime debilitating post-traumatic stress that can come with them.

With Remembrance Day on Monday, Maxwell recently spoke with CP24.com about how interacting daily with wounded soldiers has changed his life and how we as a society can better support our recent veterans.

CP24: What is the role of Wounded Warriors in terms of filling some of the gaps that do exist for soldiers?

Maxwell: Well, the charity started out extremely grass roots in 2006 by providing care packages to injured soldiers that were in a transition hospital in Germany and for the bulk of the first few years that was the mandate – just to provide care and support and a little bit more of Canada to those folks that were injured in Afghanistan and in transition back home. That said in the last 16 months or so we have started to see an explosion of operational stress injuries related to mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder specifically and as a result we have morphed into our focus being placed more into mental health and PTSD.

CP24: I guess that is sort of going to be the challenge going forward. We have a reduced role in Afghanistan and luckily we are not seeing the casualties and traumatic injuries that we once were, but I would imagine there is a backlog of troops dealing with all sorts of challenges brought about by their time on the battlefield.

Maxwell: Yeah, it is now very much a domestic situation and it is not just Afghanistan. We deal with just as many folks who served in Bosnia, Rwanda and other conflicts as we do those who served in Afghanistan. It is a unique time, as people become more comfortable talking about their mental health issues.

CP24: How difficult is it for soldiers who have served in a combat role to reacclimatize to civilian life?

Maxwell: It is an extremely, extremely difficult thing and the more you talk to these folks the more you realize how tough it is, especially for those who have been medically released. These are people who otherwise wouldn’t have left the Canadian Forces but essentially had no choice because they were deemed unfit as a result of their injury, so in most cases they don’t want to leave and haven’t prepared themselves to do so in terms of finding a new career. It is really stressful, not only because it is a massive transition but also because they have issues that they are dealing with daily from their injuries sustained in combat. You add the two together and it is a very, very complex situation.

CP24: How does your organization sort of assist with that transition?

Maxwell: Well as the demand for assistance has increased over the last year and a half or so we have really tried to diversify the types of programs we run. On the academic and research side we partner with the Canadian Institute for Military and Veterans Health Research at Queen’s (University) to fund a PHD Wounded Warriors Canada Doctoral Scholarship in military and veterans health research, which is really important when it comes to figuring out how to tackle these challenges. On the health and wellness side we fund two programs ourselves – the Wounded Warriors weekend and the Battlefield Bike Ride - that are focussed on getting these folks who may be in their house, not conversing, and not going out in public to reintegrate and get back to doing the things they used to do.

CP24: Yeah I guess a lot of it just boils down to bringing wounded veterans together and sort of letting them know they are not alone.

Maxwell: Yeah, definitely, and giving them responsibilities again. This past summer for example we took eight injured soldiers on this bike ride from Paris to London, but really the ride was just the experience at the end. We were engaged with them for six or seven months, talking to them and sending them training tips, so we were helping them on the health and wellness side and getting them out of the house long before we actually got to the ride itself.

CP24: I know you do a lot of work with animals and wounded veterans. Maybe you could talk a little bit about that.

Maxwell: Sure. We fund an equine program that is sort of all about the family. You know, when you are working with horses, communication is everything. If you are not communicating properly with the horse or if you are showing stress or anxiety the horse just won’t respond, so what we do is get the spouse and the solider to talk and to work together to get a horse to function for them and it is amazing. It really does help the soldier and the spouse communicate properly and learn how to talk about things rather than internalizing everything. The other program we fund involves service dogs and it is designed particularly to help the solider daily. The dogs are trained to help keep certain spaces between the solider and let’s say someone at the mall and that helps them with their anxiety regarding stressful situations like large crowds.

CP24: What are the biggest gaps that exist for soldiers today in terms of what is provided by the federal government?

Maxwell: I think the biggest gaps exist in the whole sphere of transition. One integral area is skill transition. Often a veteran who has been medically released from the armed forces may be 26 years old and their peers are just coming out of Masters Degrees or something and they have their whole life ahead of them to work, but there is a skill gap there that can make that challenging. The second thing is the change from a pension system for those who were released for an injury to a lump sum payment based on the severity. The thing with that is they can spend it all in a month or they can come up with a smart plan to invest, but many of them just aren’t in the right state to do that. The third thing is we just don’t have enough support programs and services in place to deal with this explosion of operational stress injuries resulting in post-traumatic stress disorders.

CP24: Do you worry about this new wave of veterans being forgotten?

Maxwell: I don’t so much worry about that, no. Canadians generally and deeply care about the condition of our veterans of all conflicts and of all ages. I know that because Wounded Warriors is independently funded and the only reason we are able to exist is because Canadians care enough to open up their wallet and donate every single year.

CP24: What prompted you to get involved with this cause Scott?

Maxwell: I never served, but I spent some time on Parliament Hill and I was paying close attention to the veterans file and then in 2007 a good friend of mine that I went to high school with by the name of Darryl Caswell was killed in Afghanistan and I just remember sitting there watching television when his picture popped up on the screen and that day I said to myself that if there was ever an opportunity going forward to give back to these people that I would help.

CP24: What has it been like for you, as someone with no prior military involvement, to find yourself dealing on a daily basis with soldiers scarred by war?

Maxwell: Honestly it has been life-changing. The emotions ebb and flow in both directions. On one hand it is extremely difficult to hear first-hand about the struggles and about what a lot of these families are dealing with right now. On the other hand, hearing about the outcomes and the testimonials makes everything we do worthwhile. You know that you are saving lives and you can’t put a price on that.

CP24: What is your Remembrance Day message to Canadians?

Maxwell: My message is to pause and remember those that paid the ultimate sacrifice for everything that we enjoy as Canadians today, but also have in your thoughts and prayers those that are living that served with those people that lost their lives, made it home and are going through a lot of difficult times. Our guiding ethos as an organization is ‘honour the fallen and help the living’ and that message will be very much in my thoughts on Monday morning.

Q and A is published every Saturday on CP24.com.

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