Hospital unveils clinic to ease pain of soldiers

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

andy.blatchford@transcontinental.ca

When a severe back injury forced Rosa-Maria Deveau out of her career two years ago, the pain ran deep.

The military medical technician was discharged in 2003 as a result of a fall that damaged her spine.

After 16 years in the Canadian Forces, including missions in Bosnia and Germany, Deveau was devastated by the shift in her life.

She said many soldiers released for medical reasons often “fall through the cracks” and are left to find their own treatment.

But everything began to improve in January 2006, when Deveau was contacted by staff at the Ste. Anne’s Veterans Hospital’s pain management clinic.

The hospital inaugurated its pain facility, which began as a pilot project in November 2005, on Thursday afternoon.

“I was lucky that I could start treatment with them,” said Deveau. “It takes you out of a very dark tunnel of depression and pain and loneliness. It gives you the hope and proper mechanisms to get up even though you are hurting.”

The Colombian-born South Shore resident said the clinic provides access to medical specialists and psychological therapists - treatments she wouldn’t be able to afford.

Ste. Anne’s Hospital director of professional services Serge Gingras said the clinic serves hospital residents and younger veterans.

But Gingras said its services also take aim at psychological suffering, such as post traumatic stress disorder, which many of today’s soldiers bring home from the field.

“We try to give them the tools to better manage their chronic pain,” Gingras said. “There is a great need.”

He said Ste. Anne’s Hospital is likely the first long-term care facility to house a pain management clinic in Canada, and possibly all of North America.

Vidéotron founder André Chagnon funded the clinic through his foundation —Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon.

Second World War veteran and Ste. Anne’s Hospital Foundation director Jean-Marcel D’Aoust said Chagnon’s donation will change the lives of soldiers.

“I’m happy to see that the vets from my war, and the wars of today, are well-treated,” said D’Aoust, a Ste. Anne de Bellevue native. “It’s a must because they will go back to their family just like they were before the war.”

Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson told hospital staff, residents and visitors on Thursday that there are five pain management clinics across the country.

The New Brunswick MP said five more will be built using $10-million-a-year investments from Ottawa.

“It’s not just the bombs and the bullets that cause our soldiers the greatest harm,

but also the psychological horrors of their missions,” said Thompson, who was joined by Conservative Senator Michael Fortier for the announcement. “Of all these clinics across the country, this is truly the lead.”쇓