By Moira Farr, Army Public Affairs
Ottawa, Ontario — For Wounded Warriors Canada (WWC), supporting more than 500 military veterans and first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other operational stress injuries presents unique challenges at the best of times.
Add the isolation measures required during a pandemic, and the work of helping people with mental health concerns becomes that much more challenging.
Along with most other charitable organizations in the time of COVID-19, WWC has had to postpone major fundraising events, such as the Battlefield Bike Ride to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands, originally scheduled for late June, 2020.
That's disappointing, says executive director Scott Maxwell, but the real concern has been the need to halt clinical programs that were starting up across the country just as pandemic isolation measures came into force.
Unfortunate timing, to say the least, for therapeutic support and resiliency training delivered primarily in live groups and one-on-one meetings with professionals and peers. “We just had to quickly figure out how to do things differently,” says Maxwell. “The goal,” he adds, for those coping with mental stress injuries, “is always to break down the isolation that can creep in.”
Those live group and one-on-one programs will resume at an unknown future date, but for now, WWC is bridging the gap with a series of videos on its website,…
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