To better help this area’s veterans and their families after the recent closure of the Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) district office in Saskatoon, Royal Canadian Legion Branch #51 president Gord McRae is entering training to become a volunteer branch service officer.
A branch service officer assists veterans by identifying those with unmet health needs and any possible benefits they could receive from VAC and then making appropriate referrals to provincial command service officers. This branch-specific function became especially important after the Department of Veterans Affairs oversaw the closing of eight district VAC offices across Canada Jan. 31, including the one in Saskatoon, which provided face-to-face services for veterans.
“A lot of veterans are entitled to certain health benefits and…that’s where the service officer would come in,” said McRae, noting he is attending a branch service officer training session at the beginning of May and would become active in the role right after that. “There are a lot of (veterans) who are still alive that are old enough that they’re entitled to a lot of benefits. When they pass on, the families are. That to me is very important. They do a lot of extra for the veterans if they know how to apply for it. That’s where I’d like to see this all happen. It’s coming up more and more.”
The transition of the person-to-person contact between a veteran and their families with a qualified individual ready to identify and respond to the challenges facing them for an online self-service program is McRae’s main concern. He said a lot of veterans have difficulty filling out the complex online applications for services correctly and denying them this access to in-person help creates lengthy delays for these people getting the services they need.
“At least with the Veterans Affairs (offices) someone there knows how to fill it out and it’s done instantly or in a (short) time frame,” he said. “That’s important to the veterans or even the people that are involved…like doctors who want to do something for them.”
To read more please see the April 21 print edition of The Davidson Leader.