RCMP and Veterans Assessments
Policing is one of the most challenging careers in Canada. When you first join policing, you may not have expected the full impact your experiences would have on your mental health. Those life threatening calls, stressful and dangerous situations, handling of dead bodies, civilian rescues, next of kin notifications, and dealing with the loss of a colleague are only some of the struggles you may have faced. Before you know it, your life has changed because of your service. The demands of work, home, and society pile on and it is difficult to make sense out of your life.
We provide full mental health assessments so you can understand yourself better. We help you complete a VAC psychological form and assessment, which will acknowledge the trauma you have experienced due to your service to Canada. The VAC psychological is compensation for how your life has changed since starting policing and identifying how your mental health has deteriorated.
Steps to take:
Step 1 Apply for benefits on your my VAC account at the link below:
My VAC Account
Step 2 Once completed make an appointment for your assessment.
Step 3 Allow up to 2 months for completion and forwarding of your assessment.
Step 4 Allow an additional 8 weeks for your VAC case manager to confirm receipt and upload file to your my VAC account.
Step 5 Check my VAC account to check the progress of your assessment, this can take from 15-41 weeks.
Get an Assessment
Uzma Williams is a provisional psychologist who completes VAC assessments for RCMP members and veterans. She will meet with you and conduct a full assessment as well as complete your forms for VAC, making the process very simple and easy.
Uzma Williams has been a sessional professor at MacEwan University for the past 9 years in the Police and Investigations programs, teaching future police members about mental health. She also has a book titled Police Response to Mental Health in Canada.
Here is the profile of an active RCMP member with 10 years of service. The squared points represent various mental health disorders.
In this case, the peaks represent anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The black line represents his current scores in respect to his level of experience in the force, as well as indicated mental health disorders. Below, in green, is a comparison to the scores of police officers at the start of their career. The difference between current and pre-policing is sad and scary - but know that this represents the functioning of the average police officer.
Want to learn more about the full mental health assessment?
Counselling for RCMP
Mental health is difficult to understand when it's often judged or not discussed at work. The difficulties you encounter such as the anger, anxiety, wanting to isolate from people, inability to sleep, emotional distress, depression and trauma symptoms, such as intrusive thoughts can be difficult to deal with on your own. Receiving an assessment is the first step, but to truly heal, speaking with a trained psychologist to help you recover and cope can be life changing.
