PTSD Presumption For Canadian First Responders?

Attitudes evolving toward PTSD, police chief says
Sudbury.com
Darren MacDonald
April 21, 2017

“The team provides immediate peer support and access to resources for members who have been involved in potentially traumatic events,” the report said. “The goal is to monitor members post event and off support services where identified.”

Attitudes toward post-traumatic stress disorder and policing have changed considerably since he began his career, Greater Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen said this week. (File photo).

Attitudes toward post-traumatic stress disorder and policing have changed considerably since he began his career, Greater Sudbury Police Chief Paul Pedersen said this week.

"I've been in the profession a very long time,” Pedersen said. “There was a time when these types of things were not only unrecognized, but were hidden. There was a stigma associated with mental illness that suggested there was a weakness of character."

The chief was speaking after a police services board meeting this week, in which the force outlined its policies for helping front-line workers with PTSD.

Police had until April 23 to do so under the Supporting Ontario's First Responders Act, passed in the Ontario Legislature this month. It creates a presumption that PTSD diagnosed in first responders is work-related.
read more here

PTSD on Trial: Iraq Veteran

Ohio judge finds Mississauga veteran not guilty of attempted murder due to insanity
The Star
By SAMMY HUDES
Staff Reporter
April 14, 2017

Lesko, a permanent resident of Canada where he has lived since 2009, served in the U.S. military from 2003 to 2008, including two tours in Iraq.

He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following his arrest.

A Mississauga veteran was found not guilty by reason of insanity on Friday for an attempted murder and felonious assault charge he faced in Ohio.

Jason Lesko during one of two tours of duty in Iraq when he served in the U.S. military from 2003-2008. (SUPPLIED BY PRECIOUS LESKO)

The charges stemmed from an incident in November 2016 when Jason Lesko allegedly stabbed his brother several times in the neck, chest and hand with a kitchen knife at their father’s house in Ravenna, Ohio.

Lesko’s wife Precious recalled her husband being confused and “behaving erratically” on Nov. 28.

The next morning, she awoke to find her husband had disappeared from their Mississauga home without his cellphone or a change of clothes.

He turned up at his father’s house in Ohio, where his brother was. His brother tried to reason with him, urging him to return to his family in Canada.

Jason Lesko was charged on Dec. 8 with attempted murder, felonious assault and disrupting public services in connection with the incident involving his brother, which he couldn’t even remember, according to Precious.
read more here

Canada: PTSD Veteran Survived 3 Tours, Sought Help... Then Killed Himself

Military veteran’s suicide preceded by calls for help
The Star Canada
Allen Woods
February 14, 2017

Carl Jason Dunphy, 39, wrote of frustration with Veterans Affairs Canada before ending his life in Feb. 11 confrontation with Quebec police

MONTREAL—A Canadian military veteran with post-traumatic stress syndrome killed himself Saturday in a confrontation with police just hours after complaining about the government’s handling of his case.

Carl Jason Dunphy, 39, wrote on his Facebook page Saturday morning that he had been fighting with Veterans Affairs Canada for additional help with operational stress injuries after serving three combat tours in Afghanistan.

“It’s eating away at my resources and my strength. It’s not up to friends and spouses to deal with this because a government organization doesn’t act,” the native of Edmunston, N.B., wrote.

That night, the Sûreté du Québec responded to a tip from the Edmunston police force about a suicidal man headed into their jurisdiction.
Paul Nichols met Dunphy in Edmunston during the tail end of a horseback ride across Canada in 2015 to raise awareness about veterans’ issues.

Nichols said in an interview that Dunphy had suffered multiple concussions as a result of roadside-bomb strikes over the course of three deployments in Afghanistan and was left struggling with short-term memory as a result.

read more here

Dog Has Afghanistan Veteran's Back...On Motorcycle

Dog Loves Going On Motorcycle Rides With His Veteran Dad
The DoDo
Christian Cotroneo
February 14, 2017

"With my PTSD, I don't do well in crowds and with unfamiliar people and places. She watches my back."

When the crowds got to be too much for Keith Campeau, he had a friend to take him away from it all: his motorcycle.

Campeau would get on the open road in Edmonton, Alberta, and feel the sanity-saving grace of being alone. It's been like that ever since the Canadian soldier came back from a tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2011 with a crippling case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Crowds made him painfully anxious.

"When I first got back, that was my one escape — to jump on the bike and take a ride when I was getting out of hand," Campeau tells The Dodo. "That was a kind of self-induced therapy."

But the motorcycle couldn't always be there for him. And the crowds — on busy sidewalks and in teeming malls — never seemed too far behind.

"It was like World War 3 every night getting home from work," he explains. "When I went out in public, I started bumping into people. In crowded areas, I started knocking people over."

A psychologist recommended Campeau find another friend: a dog.
read more here

Canada Veterans Need to Look At US Reports on Mefloquine

In 2008 the VA issued a warning about Mefloquine, and there are other stories on this report going back to 2002.

Senator Dianne Feinstein wanted answers from Donald Rumsfeld in 2003

Veterans, families want answers over Forces' use of Mefloquine
Toronto Sun crime reporter Chris Doucette. (Sun files)
By Chris Doucette, Toronto Sun
Monday, January 23, 2017

The call for accountability over the Canadian Forces’ use of a controversial anti-malaria drug is growing louder and veterans and family members hope Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will hear their cries for help.

A former medic who served in Somalia, the wife of a soldier disgraced in the Somalia Affair, the mother of a soldier who killed himself in Rwanda and a doctor with expertise in the neuropsychiatric effects of Mefloquine toxicity recently submitted written statements to the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs outlining the drugs’ devastation.

Marj Matchee writes her husband, Clayton, suffered paranoia and hallucinations prior to his 1993 arrest for the deadly beating of a Somali teen.

“You see things when you sleep. You see it in the daytime too,” she recalls him saying.

Many veterans who were forced to take the drug before it was licensed still suffer from side effects that Health Canada and AA Pharma, the Canadian supplier of the drug, quietly added to Mefloquine’s warning label last year.

“We must do more to reach out to these veterans, to acknowledge the harms that Mefloquine has caused them, and commit to funding research to study and ultimately try to reverse these effects,” Matchee writes.

Dr. Remington Nevin, of Johns Hopkins University, says Mefloquine toxicity can cause brain damage that mimics PTSD, so sufferers may receive the wrong treatment and symptoms such as suicidal thoughts persist.
read more here

These may help their case

Lariam Psychiatric and Suicidal Side Effects Research shows the anti-malaria drug mefloquine hydrochloride—formerly sold under the brand name Lariam—might cause psychiatric abnormalities, suicidal ideations and behaviors, and potentially permanent nerve damage. Because of these psychiatric side effects, the drug’s manufacturer, Hoffmann-La Roche, pulled it from the market in 2008. The U.S. Army continued to administer it to soldiers, however, until 2011, when the army ceased prescribing Lariam even for soldiers deployed in malaria-prone regions such as Afghanistan. In July 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified the public that mefloquine products’ drug labels would be updated with a black box warning—the agency’s most serious kind—concerning the aforementioned side effects.

Combat PTSD Veterans Wait For Care in Canada Too!

Veterans Affairs struggles with assistance requests, leaves hundreds in limbo
The Canadian Press
By LEE BERTHIAUME
Jan. 5, 2017

Internal reports show just over half of veterans who applied for disability benefits between April and July last year received a decision within 16 weeks.

Internal reports obtained by The Canadian Press indicate that just over half of veterans who applied for disability benefits between April and July last year received a decision within 16 weeks.

Officials say processing times have been sped up, but the department is still falling short of its own targets and leaving hundreds of ill and injured veterans in limbo for months on end.

Many are struggling with mental-health injuries, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

The revelation comes amid shock over the shooting deaths of four people in Nova Scotia this week, one of them the apparent suicide of a veteran from Canada’s war in Afghanistan.

Family members say retired corporal Lionel Desmond had been seeking treatment for PTSD without success following his release from the military in July 2015.

Desmond, who served in Afghanistan in 2007, was found dead Tuesday in Upper Big Tracadie, N.S., along with wife Shanna, their 10-year-old daughter Aaliyah and his mother Brenda.

“When combined with issues that members are having with PTSD and occupational stress injuries, it becomes overwhelming for our veterans.” John Brassard
read more here

Nova Scotia Abandoned PTSD Veteran--Family Paid Price With Gunshots

I struggled with the headline I used. There is no other way to put it. Governments, like the US, send them to fight battles yet do not seem interested enough in making sure they are properly taken care of afterwards. Now a veteran is gone. His family is gone. As you will read, he tried to get help that should have been ready and waiting for him. Much like weapons, uniforms, supplies and transportation are prepared to welcome them to the war zones. No one welcomed them to the war zone of having to fight for the care they needed because they went.

Veteran, his wife, child and mother found dead in apparent murder-suicide
CBC News
By Elizabeth McMillan, Sherri Borden Colley
Posted: Jan 04, 2017

Lionel Desmond appears to have shot himself, 3 others died of gunshot wounds, RCMP say

Lionel Desmond was part of the India Company, 2nd battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, in Afghanistan in 2007. (Facebook)

A military veteran, his newly graduated nurse wife, their 10-year-old daughter and her grandmother are dead after an apparent murder-suicide that has rocked a rural Nova Scotia community.

CBC News has confirmed the deceased are Lionel Desmond, 33, his wife, Shanna Desmond, 31, their 10-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, and Brenda Desmond, 52, who was Lionel's mother.

Nova Scotia RCMP said Lionel Desmond appeared to have shot himself, and the three others died of apparent gunshot wounds. Police said they found two guns in the house and are continuing to search the area.

Police were called to the house in northeastern Nova Scotia, about 29 kilometres north of Guysborough, shortly after 6 p.m. AT. Insp. Lynn Young, officer in charge of the Nova Scotia RCMP major crimes unit, told reporters two people found the bodies and called 911.

"This is incredibly tragic for everyone involved," she said.

Shanna Desmond's aunt, Catherine Hartling, said she went to the home in Upper Big Tracadie on Tuesday night because she thought Lionel Desmond had taken his own life. She arrived to learn everyone inside was dead.

'No beds available'

Rev. Elaine Walcott, who lives just outside of Halifax and is related to the victims, said Lionel Desmond had recently spent time in a Montreal clinic for post-traumatic stress disorder.

"He's been crying out for help from the mental health system," she said.

Shanna Desmond recently graduated as a registered nurse and was working at St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S. — the same hospital where her husband had tried to get treatment within the last week, Walcott said.

"I understand that there were no beds available," Walcott said.

"He suffered in physical ways, he suffered in emotional ways, and spiritual ways," she said of his tours in Afghanistan.
read more here

PTSD Veteran Getting Help After Smashing Cars in Canada

Driver In HSC Parking Lot Was Veteran Suffering Extreme PTSD 
VOCM News 
December 20, 2016 

A 42-year-old combat veteran is in hospital and getting the care he needs following an unusual incident in the Health Sciences parking lot last night.

Police were called to the Health Sciences around 11:45 last night following reports of a man driving erratically in the lot and smashing his pickup into vehicles and other property. 

The man had to be subdued by police using a taser A family member tells VOCM News the man, who served many years in the military both in Canada and in Bosnia, had gone to the hospital seeking help but never had the nerve to go in. She says he's now receiving care and she encourages any military veterans or others struggling with PTSD to reach out and get the help they need.

Canada: Suicide Toll Reveals How System Failed Soldiers and Veterans

THE UNREMEMBERED
Suicide toll reveals how system failed Canada's soldiers and veterans
TORONTO/MONTREAL/CALGARY — The Globe and Mail
RENATA D’ALIESIO, LES PERREAUX AND ALLAN MAKI
Published Friday, Nov. 04, 2016

Since then, The Globe’s continuing investigation uncovered the suicide count has climbed to at least 70. There is no word yet of any government or military plans to remember these fallen.

Canadian army soldiers board a CH-47 Chinook helicopter as they leave forward fire base Zangabad in Panjwai district in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, June 18, 2011. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

This article is part of The Unremembered, a Globe and Mail investigation into soldiers and veterans who died by suicide after deployment during the Afghanistan mission.

They were sons of bankers, miners and infanteers. They were strongmen and endurance runners. They were husbands and fathers who took their children camping and taught them how to play shinny on backyard rinks.

All 31 were dedicated Canadian soldiers and airmen who served on the perilous Afghanistan mission. They all came home. All ended their lives.

Most were haunted by the things they saw and did in Afghanistan, their families told The Globe and Mail. Many asked the military for help, but in several cases, their medical assessments and treatment were delayed, even as their post-traumatic stress, depression and sleeplessness worsened.

The families of the 31 fallen spoke to The Globe as part of a collaborative effort to commemorate military members and veterans lost to suicide after serving on the Afghanistan mission, Canada’s longest military operation. Many are speaking publicly about their loss for the first time. And for many of the military members, this is the first public recognition of their sacrifice.

Together, their stories paint a disturbing picture of delayed care, ineffective medical treatment and insufficient mental-health support. The 31 accounts are the most comprehensive public record of Canada’s Afghanistan war veterans lost to suicide – unwitting monuments to a system that is failing too many vulnerable soldiers and veterans.
read more here

Canada: Mom Received Penny After Soldier Son Committed Suicide, Now Vindicated

Mom who was sent 1 cent after soldier son’s suicide getting Memorial Cross
The Star
Colin Perkel
The Canadian Press
September 14, 2016

The government had already sparked outrage after it sent Stark a cheque for 1 cent in “release pay” for her dead son in February 2014 — prompting then-defence minister Rob Nicholson to apologize for what he called “insensitive bureaucratic screw-up.”

Soldier Justin Stark, 22, killed himself after serving a 7-month deployment in Afghanistan. The Memorial Cross shows the military finally recognizes his death as service-related.

Justin Stark's mother, Denise Stark, says she is stunned and overjoyed to know the family's fight over whether her son's death was service-related is over.
(COLIN PERKEL / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The mother of a Canadian soldier who killed himself after serving in Afghanistan will finally be honoured with a Memorial Cross this weekend, ending a long battle to have the military recognize his death as service-related.
In an interview ahead of the ceremony, Denise Stark said she was both stunned and overjoyed when told the family’s fight over the death of her son, Cpl. Justin Stark, was over.

“I just sat there and cried — tears of joy and what not, a whole mix of emotions,” Stark said of the call that came earlier this year. “The next day, I went down to the cemetery, so I could tell Justin the good news.”

Stark, 22, a reservist with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, served a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan. In October 2011, 10 months after his return to Canada, he killed himself at the John Weir Foote Armouries in Hamilton.

A board of inquiry concluded more than two years ago that his tour in Afghanistan did not cause post-traumatic stress disorder — PTSD — which contributed to his suicide and his mother and family would not be honoured with the Memorial Cross — frequently called the Silver Cross.
read more here

10th Anniversary of Operation Medusa Remembered by PTSD Veteran

Canadian soldier writes song for 10th anniversary of Operation Medusa
CTV News Canada
Taline McPhedran
September 3, 2016

The song, and journal entry, goes on to describe the attack happening in the same place that saw four other Canadian soldiers killed a month before. It then describes a British plane that went down while flying reconnaissance, killing all 12 British soldiers on board.

To acknowledge the 10th anniversary of Operation Medusa that saw 15 Canadian troops killed in Afghanistan, a soldier who fought in the battle has released a song called Panjwai.

Capt. Ryan Carey decided to write the song as a way to deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and to deal with what he witnessed in the conflict. The song goes through a retelling of his experiences during the operation to take back the Panjwai district from the Taliban.

The song starts with the crossing of the Arghandab River and the following bombardment that left four Canadian soldiers dead. The Taliban were ready for them, and dug in for a fight.

“We drove into a heavily fortified defensive position… we drove into the kill zone,” Carey told CTV News.
read more here

Canadian Couple Heartbroken, Separated After 62 Years of Marriage

The Heartbreaking Story Behind Photo of Elderly Couple Crying
ABC News
By AVIANNE TAN
Aug 25, 2016

An elderly couple from the town of Surrey in British Columbia, Canada, was recently photographed crying after apparently being moved to separate nursing homes a few months ago.

Anita Gottschalk, 81, and Wolfram Gottschalk, 83, have been heartbroken since they've been forced to live in separate nursing homes, according to their 29-year-old granddaughter Ashley Bartyik.

The emotional photo was taken Monday during a visit between the couple. Ashley Bartyik, the couple's granddaughter, told ABC News today she's worried that their "heartbreak and the stress could literally kill them."

"This is the saddest photo I have ever taken," Bartyik, 29, wrote in the photo's caption. It has been shared nearly 3,000 times on Facebook.

She explained that after 62 years of marriage, her grandparents have been separated for eight months "due to backlogs and delays by our heath care system."
read more here

Firefighters Raising Alarm of PTSD

Firefighters Raise Alarm About Risk Of PTSD In The Ranks
New research indicates PTSD might be as common among firefighters as military veterans.
Houston Public Media
CARRIE FEIBEL
POSTED ON AUGUST 17, 2016

Three Houston firefighters have killed themselves in the past five years, according to White.

Dave Fehling | Houston Public Media

Volunteer firefighters training at Texas A and M’s Disaster City in College Station

Firefighters from the U.S. and Canada are in Las Vegas this week for the biennial convention of the International Association of Firefighters. One of the main topics of the conference this year is post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We know that it’s increasingly on the rise,” said Alvin White Jr., the union president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association and a conference attendee.

White says it’s not clear what’s contributing to the increase – it could be simply that more firefighters are willing to seek treatment. The 9-11 attacks also helped to de-stigmatize the disorder among first responders.

“Before that we tried to deal with it ourselves,” White said. “We’d self-medicate ourselves with alcohol and try to take care of it that way, because it was a sign of weakness.”

A report released Tuesday from the International Association of Firefighters summarizes the most recent research on PTSD. Estimated rates among firefighters range 9 to 20 percent, which is comparable to the rate in the military.
read more here

First responder PTSD similar to combat vets

Finally someone has taken the different types of PTSD seriously! It is what experts I learned from over three decades ago figured out. Combat PTSD is different from others but so is the type first responders have.  Risking your life as a career is a lot different than surviving trauma once in a lifetime.

First responder PTSD similar to combat vets: Report
TORONTO SUN
BY KEVIN CONNOR
FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2016

A study of a group of Canadian firefighters showed rates of PTSD of more than 17%.

A separate study of 402 professional firefighters from Germany found that the PTSD rate was at 18%.

While no such study has been done in Toronto, the TPFFA believes the rates of PTSD would be similar.

TORONTO - Toronto’s first responders are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder at rates comparable to combat veterans, new research shows.

Pulling a child from a car wreck or responding to a house fire with multiple victims is the same as seeing action on a battle ground, a report released Tuesday at the International Association of Fire Fighters conference says.

The report — PTSD and Cancer: Growing Number of Fire Fighters at Risk — says understanding the effects of the hazards is critical to keep first responders safe and on the job.

“Neither of these hidden hazards (PTSD and cancer from exposure to burning toxins) is adequately addressed in current protocols for treatment and remediation,” the study says.
read more here

Canada: Military Missed Opportunity to Save Suicidal of Soldier

Military had chance to "lessen the likelihood" of soldier suicide, judge says
The Canadian Press
By Chris Purdy
Posted: Aug 06, 2016

PTSD-diagnosed soldier "would have been handled entirely differently" if diagnosis was known

A fatality inquiry into the death of Cpl. Shaun Collins,

a 27-year-old Canadian Forces soldier, suggested the military

could have lessened the likelihood of his death. (Supplied)

A judge says the military had several opportunities to prevent or lower the risk of suicide for an Edmonton soldier who hanged himself in a holding cell five years ago.

Cpl. Shaun Collins, 27, killed himself at Canadian Forces Base Edmonton after he was arrested by military police for drunk driving on March 11, 2011.

Provincial court Judge Jody Moher said in a fatality inquiry report released late Friday afternoon that things could have been done to try to save the soldier.

"It is irrefutable that there were a number of potential opportunities to obviate or lessen the likelihood of Shaun Collins committing suicide that evening," she said.

​Moher said no one did a computer search that night on Collins after his arrest.

A search would have found that Collins, a member of the 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after he returned from his second tour in Afghanistan in 2010. He had also tried kill himself, or threatened to kill himself, four times and was being transitioned out of the military.

The judge wrote that information on the soldier's mental health was available on a military computer system. But a comssionaire, dispatcher and three military police officers on duty did not do a check and placed him alone in a cell.
read more here

Australian Army Captain Suicide Between Canada and New York

Behind a mask of despair
Townsville Bulletin
July 23, 2016

Since 2000, data suggests nearly three times as many active Australian soldiers and nearly five times as many veterans have committed suicide as have died in Afghanistan. But before Paul, almost none had been nationally recognised.

ON the second-last day of 2013, a stranger arrived in Saranac Lake, a 5400-person mountain town 112km shy of the Canadian border.

Set amid the patchwork of forest preserves and villages, Saranac Lake is the “Capital of the Adirondacks”, a one-time best small town of New York, and the place where I’m from.

He was a 31-year-old infantry captain in the Australian Army who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from Afghanistan two years before. He arrived on the one bus that comes each day: an Adirondack Trailways coach that chugs slowly uphill from Albany.

To get to Albany, he’d travelled more than 17,000km. He was good looking – wholesome and tidy, with intelligent eyes. He’d been a battle captain in Afghanistan’s Oruzgan province, near Kandahar, working as part of Mentoring Task Force 3 with about 700 other Townsville soldiers. But he had a medical review coming up and, his family would later tell the police, he feared he might be discharged.

On New Year’s Eve, he bought a shovel and a blanket at the shopping plaza and set off on foot towards Lake Placid.
read more here

Canada Wants Money Back From Disabled Veteran?

Former soldier shocked by $81,000 bill from Veterans Affairs
CBC News
By Travis McEwan
Posted: Jun 28, 2016

'It’s almost two years of my salary that they want back, that’s a lot of money' Dean Campbell

Retired Armed Forces veteran Dean Campbell relaxes at his property east of Sherwood Park.

(Travis McEwan/CBC)

Dean Campbell sometimes sees bombs dropping, smells things burning, hears the sounds of war.

His flashbacks are symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome, and can be triggered by loud noises, large crowds or stress.

The latest bout, he said, was brought on by a letter from Veterans Affairs Canada.

According to the government, the former warrant officer owes his country $81,272.10.

Part of the problem can be traced to a class-action lawsuit settled in 2014. The court ruled that veterans with disabilities were entitled to lump-sum payments to compensate for cost-of-living increases dating back to the 1970s, increases required under their long-term disability plan.

Campbell said his one-time payment from that settlement was close to $112,000.

In a letter sent in May, Veterans Affairs told Campbell he had been overpaid under the Service Income Security Insurance Plan by a total of $74,252.10 between 2012 and 2016. The letter said he had also received a separate overpayment of $7,020.

The government wants all the money back.
read more here

Fire Chief With PTSD Wrongfully Dismissed

EXCLUSIVE: Former Penticton Fire Chief discusses PTSD, lawsuit against City
Global News
By Angela Jung and Kimberly Davidson
June 22, 2016

PENTICTON — A former Penticton Fire Chief is suing the City for wrongful dismissal and several other claims.

Wayne Harold Williams, 56, served the City of Penticton with a notice of civil claim on June 21, 2016.

In an exclusive interview with Global News, Wayne Williams says over the span of four days in February 2015, the fire department responded to three major fires.

One of those calls irrevocably changed his life. It was a house fire, but it was no ordinary blaze because a body was found inside; the man had committed suicide.

Williams believes this incident triggered his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
read more here

Song For First Responders and PTSD Nominated for Nashville Award

Kevin Davison’s song lives on: Canaan man performs for paramedics, nominated for Nashville award
Kings County Advertiser Register
Wendy Eilliott
May 27, 2016

CANAAN - During a Halifax ceremony May 24, country music singer and paramedic Kevin Davidson performed his song When Those Sirens Are Gone. It could soon be an award winner.

Kevin Davison performs May 24 at the Emergency Health Services long term service award ceremony in Halifax.

The Canaan resident was one of 10 Emergency Health Services staff members from the Valley region who were recognized for their service.

"When Nova Scotians need urgent medical care, paramedics, nurses and medical communications officers with Emergency Health Services are there to help," said Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine.

"They have the training and experience to respond in emergencies and save lives. More and more, they are also working in collaborative health-care teams to improve the care we offer in communities. We are all grateful for their expertise."

The list of long service award recipients is long. The 20-year recipients from Kings County included Davison, Bruce Cruickshank of Canning, Christopher Renaud of Kingston; Rob Merchant of Hantsport; Scott Veinot of Middleton and Karen Cress and Richard Foster of Annapolis Royal.

Jay Marshall of Bridgetown and Paul Dawson of Port Williams were 25-year recipients, while Brian Bunch of Wolfville was a 30-year recipient.
read more here

"We ain't super heroes. We're ordinary men trying to make a difference."

Published on Nov 19, 2014
A song I wrote along with Doug Folkins honouring all First Responders and the painful reality of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Let's get this out to everyone who may be affected or has a loved one at risk of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Let this be our Anthem!'

If you like the song please go to www.ellentube.com and watch it again on that site. We are trying to get Ellen to notice so we can bring even more attention to this serious issue! Just search "When Those Sirens Are Gone" once you get to the site.

Thank you so much to everyone that has viewed the video.

Strange Story of Joseph Benjamin Noil Canadian with US Medal of Honor

UPDATE
Headstone fixes error for MOH recipient more than 140 years after rescue

District of Columbia Executive Director of the Mayor's Office of Veterans Affairs Tammi Lambert, left, and Director of the Department of Behavioral Health Tanya A. Royster, right, unveil the headstone of Medal of Honor recipient Joseph B. Noil during a ceremony Friday, April 29, 2016, at St. Elizabeths Hospital Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Noil received the Medal of Honor while serving on USS Powhatan, but his headstone did not recognize his award because of a misprint on his death certificate.
ERIC LOCKWOOD/U.S. NAVY

Nearly forgotten, a sailor’s heroics are now forever etched in stone
Washington Post
By John Kelly Columnist
April 26, 2016

When Joseph Benjamin Noil started to lose his mind, it was agreed that the best place for him was the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington, D.C. That’s where the Navy sailor went on June 3, 1881.

“Paralysis” was the vague diagnosis. Today we might call it post-traumatic stress disorder. Noil did little more than stare into the distance.

Living in New York City and working to support their two daughters, Noil’s wife, Sarah Jane, was too poor to visit him, but she wrote the hospital regularly to check on his condition.

Joseph Noil was a hero. He joined the Navy in 1864, possibly earlier. On the day after Christmas in 1872, he was aboard the USS Powhatan, a side-wheel steam frigate, off Norfolk. A boatswain named Walton fell from the forecastle into the ice-cold water and was swept under the bow.

Upon hearing the cry, “Man overboard!” Noil bolted from below deck, took the end of a rope and leapt into the sea. He caught Walton and held him until a boat came to their rescue.

For this gallant conduct, Noil was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Noil was unusual for many reasons. He was Canadian. And he was black.
read more here