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Canadian Forces doesn't track hidden wounds
The CANADIAN PRESS
17 November 2008
Canadian Forces doesn't track hidden wounds
The CANADIAN PRESS
17 November 2008
HALIFAX -- The Canadian Forces is not tracking how many of its soldiers are suffering from service related hearing
loss and traumatic brain trauma, two of the so-called signature injuries of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Defence Department doesn't have the systems working or in place to record the number of people returning
from tours overseas who have identified hearing loss or brain injuries, giving them little sense as to the extent of
what are thought to be rising problems in the ranks.
Unlike the British and American militaries which have better means of tracking conditions affecting their troops,
the Canadian Forces has yet to implement computerized programs that can digitally compile information and point
to any trends for certain injuries.
"We have no way to systematically collect that data," Steve Tsekrekos, an occupational medicine specialist with
Force Health Protection, said from Ottawa.
"There's much room for improvement compared to what we're currently doing. It's a question of continually to
push that this is an issue that we need to address."
Forces members are examined for a variety of possible injuries in theatre and when they return from a deployment,
but the data in most cases is contained in a paper record that goes into individual files.
It's also up to soldiers to indicate in questionnaires if they suspect they have sustained certain injuries.
To test for hearing loss at home, military doctors have to reply on antiquated 1970s - vintage audiometres for
which replacement parts are not being made and can produce only a paper document.
The absence of any condensed data on injuries has left the Forces without a global, detailed picture of the injuries
affecting soldiers serving in environments characterized by bomb blasts, gunfire and loud equipment.
"The usefulness of that sort of data is to provide us with a track record as to changes in the patterns of injuries
or illnesses," says Bryan Barber, a deployment health specialist with the Canadian Forces Health Services group in
Ottawa.
"We don't actually have any current numbers on the incidence of mild traumatic brain injury in the Canadian
Forces population serving in Afghanistan."
Statistics and studies coming out of the U.S. indicate one in four soldiers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan have
damaged hearing, caused by blasts from improvised explosive devices, suicide bomb explosions and prolonged
exposure to noisy vehicles.
According to Veterans Affairs Canada, close to 320 military personnel who served in Afghanistan since 2001
are now receiving disability benefits linked to hearing loss.
Of the total number of Canadian veterans receiving benefits, roughly half are due to a hearing impairment.
"There are a lot we do in the military that are very damaging to hearing and that has always been so,"
said Major Sandra West, a base surgeon at the Ottawa military clinic who spent seven months in Afghanistan
earlier this year.
"It's very hard to protect your hearing all the time just because of the sorts of things we do."
In 2001, Veterans Affairs had 37,374 clients in receipt of treatment benefits for their hearing loss with total
expenditures of $22.6 million. By this March, that number had risen to 47,347 clients at a cost of $38.5 million.