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The 10th anniversary of the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research forum provides an opportunity to look back—and to look forward. A decade ago, nobody had yet counted the number of homeless veterans or veterans’ suicides in Canada; today there are robust programs tackling both—and... -
Military medics used to paint their helmets or wear armbands with red crosses to make themselves more visible, signalling to the enemy that they, and the soldiers they cared for, were not combatants. In a once widely respected humanitarian rule of war, they were not... -
It may be small, but a study of military traumatic brain injury (TBI) and exercise will produce one piece of a puzzle whose long-term effects we have only begun to understand. University of Ottawa researchers are searching for how best to treat the enigmatic injury. As of mid-July,... -
Quebec Superior Court approved a class action on Feb. 20, which seeks compensation for alleged deterioration in service to veterans in Ste-Anne’s Hospital in the three years since it was transferred to provincial control. The suit was launched by Second World War veteran Wolf William... -
– Illustration by Robert Carter – Five years after the Canadian military lowered the flag for the last time in Afghanistan, the first war in which post-traumatic stress injury was recognized as a war wound, it seems impossible to determine how much the treatment of... -
If all goes as planned, sometime in August, ground will be broken for a project that will not only provide stable, supportive housing for homeless veterans in Ottawa, but serve as a template that can be copied elsewhere. “We know it’s needed not just here;...
Military Health Matters
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Music soothes the injured brain
In treating Canadian soldiers returning from the First World War with psychological wounds, British musician Margaret Anderton discovered music does indeed have “charms to soothe the savage breast.” “Wood instruments,” she observed, “are particularly potent for a certain kind of war-neurosis because of their penetrating, sustained tone.” Anderton went on to teach the first...
