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House Hansard - 326

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 6, 2024 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 326 - Jun/6/24
Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands, Lib.)
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to pick up where I left off when we were last debating Bill C-277, introduced to the House by the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. Specifically, this bill is about bringing forward a very interesting proposal as it relates to setting up a national framework for dealing with brain injuries. I would note that I will be supporting this bill. It is very timely, and it is important that we bring this forward. Each year, over 20,000 people are hospitalized for traumatic brain injuries, caused by something from outside of the body, including concussions. Traumatic brain injuries represent between 8% and 10% of all brain injury hospitalizations. The leading causes of traumatic brain injury hospitalizations include falls among the elderly and motor vehicle collisions among young people ages 15 to 19 and those over 65 years of age. Work is being undertaken across governments, with stakeholders and health care professionals, to prevent, detect, treat and raise awareness for traumatic brain injuries. I would also add that another aspect of this is intimate partner violence, and in particular gender-based violence. A pervasive form of gender-based violence can result in brain injuries. Women account for the vast majority of people who experience intimate partner violence. People experiencing brain injury and family violence concurrently can face unique barriers in treatment and support services, which may prolong cycles of violence and put survivors at risk of repeat brain injury and potential disability. All this being said, I would like to talk very briefly about what the federal government has done. In terms of federal action, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Health Canada currently support initiatives related to brain health, brain injury prevention, and surveillance and research, such as providing funding to support brain health innovation, including technology that evaluates cognitive brain health across diverse conditions. They provide funding to support women survivors of gender-based violence experiencing traumatic brain injuries, as well as initiatives that build the service provider capacity. They are also conducting surveillance and research on a broad spectrum of traumatic brain injuries among various populations, including populations that are underserved, and supporting academic research and knowledge mobilization through various government agencies to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury. All of that being said, in terms of what the government has currently been focusing on, Bill C-277 specifically calls on the Minister of Health, in consultation with representatives from other levels of government responsible for health, indigenous groups and relevant stakeholders, to develop a national strategy to support and improve brain injury awareness, prevention and treatment, as well as the rehabilitation and recovery of persons living with a brain injury. It also sets out specific requirements for reporting to Parliament. The resulting strategy would identify high-level guiding principles to foster a national coordinated approach to brain injuries for people living in Canada. Notwithstanding the fact that the federal government is already doing a lot in this field of research, this field of study, this field of health care, what is being proposed by my NDP colleague specifically is to bring this all together. We might have various agencies and different levels of government working on strategies for how to help and assist people with brain injuries, but what we are lacking is what he is proposing, which is to bring that together holistically so that everybody is working off the same page, so to speak. I do think this is really important because, unlike so many other challenges people have, brain injuries are not always widely understood. With other injuries or diseases people can be affected by, quite often we can see something physical and we are able to associate that with something going on in somebody's life or a challenge they are having. With brain injuries or concussions, for example, it is not the same. They are not that easily identifiable. I would even argue that there is some public education in all of this that perhaps the strategy could help develop. It could become part of informing and educating people on what traumatic brain injuries are all about and how, as a society, we can help elevate conversations around them so people can be properly supported. Once again, I thank the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford for bringing forward this really important piece of legislation. I look forward to concluding today's debate on it and then getting to a point where we can have a vote on it.
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Context: House Hansard - 326 - Jun/6/24
Mr. Eric Melillo (Kenora, CPC)
Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today to speak to this important private member's bill. I thank the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford for bringing forward Bill C-277. I suspect I will echo many of the comments made already this evening. I believe there is broad support for this bill. It is definitely great to see an important step forward. The bill would provide for the development of a national strategy to support and to improve brain injury awareness, prevention and treatment, as well as the rehabilitation and the recovery of persons living with brain injuries. Brain injuries, unfortunately, are becoming exceedingly common, and there are a number of factors for that. Perhaps part of it is that we are getting better at detecting and diagnosing these injuries, but I understand that a lot more work needs to be done to address the treatment aspect and how it would be monitored going forward. Unfortunately, we do not understand brain injuries as well as we should or as we need to, and how that pairs with mental health. Many Canadians struggle with the negative impacts of mental health. There are 165,000 Canadians who suffer a brain injury each year. That is a staggering number of Canadians who are impacted by brain injuries, which speaks to the need for Bill C-277. An estimated 1.5 million Canadians are living with these injuries presently. I will repeat that 165,000 Canadians suffer an injury each year. That is why we need a strategy, more treatment and a better understanding through a national framework. The member who brought the bill forward touched on a number of important aspects intertwined with brain injuries and health, one of which is opioids. Nearly 22,000 opioid-related hospitalizations have resulted in brain injuries from 2016 to 2020. We also know that brain injury survivors are four times more likely to develop addiction issues. I applaud the member for bringing this bill forward. He has commented in this place on the importance of how this is impacting opioids and addictions. Taking a step back, the issue of addictions is, unfortunately, far too prevalent across the country. We are in a mental health and addictions crisis. That is seen in northwestern Ontario where I am from, in the district of Kenora. Far too many people are struggling with mental health and addictions that lead them to homelessness or some other precarious and vulnerable situations. We are seeing this over and over again. It has led to concerns for the safety of vulnerable residents struggling with their addictions, for the safety of other residents, of tourists and of the small business community in the downtown core in Kenora. An increase in crime has accompanied this, as well as other negative health outcomes. With the addictions crisis and the lack of treatment and recovery options that exist, people have, unfortunately, shared needles and have been doing a number of unsafe things. We have seen an increase in HIV cases across the Kenora district as well, all stemming from this addictions crisis. In 2022, statistics show there were more HIV cases in Kenora than in the previous eight years combined. That shows the dramatic increase as a result of the addictions crisis. That is part of the reason the Conservative Party has been staunch in its support for more treatment and recovery options, which are incredibly lacking in northwestern Ontario, and I think right across the country. People struggling with addictions need places they can go to hopefully break through that cycle so that they can lead drug-free lives. The member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, who brought this forward, has also spoken about how domestic violence plays into this. It is another very important topic to speak about. Brain Injury Canada estimates that 35% to potentially as high as 80% of women who experience domestic violence also experience symptoms of a traumatic brain injury. These are staggering numbers. I share them here today to again underscore the importance of this legislation. I want to now go to the bill specifically. There are many things in it that are encouraging and are positive steps forward. I want to refer to a couple that are of particular interest to me and that I think are particularly positive. The bill talks about the content of such a strategy. It mentions that it would “promote awareness and education with particular emphasis on improving public understanding and protecting the rights of persons living with a brain injury”. As well, it would “identify challenges resulting from brain injury, such as mental health problems, addiction, housing and homelessness issues and criminality, including intimate partner violence, and work to develop solutions in collaboration with stakeholders”. There is one more that I will end on. It would “encourage consultation with mental health professionals, particularly in educational institutions, sports organizations and workplaces, to provide persons who are suffering from the effects of a brain injury, including mental health and addiction problems, with a support system within the community”. The bill is very well crafted, but those are three that are of particular interest to me. I want to stress this with respect to sports organizations particularly. I have had a bit of experience with that throughout my life, playing sports, and now, being back home as a football coach in my community as well. The need to recognize head injuries, concussions and how to identify them is definitely evolving and people are getting better at that, and I think sports organizations are doing great work in that. There is definitely a long way to go in that regard. It is a bit interesting that we are having this debate today. It is also the kickoff to the Canadian Football League season today. It is a big deal in my household. I know that the defending champions, the Alouettes, are going to be in Winnipeg to take on the Blue Bombers. That is what makes me think about the importance of this bill because we have seen, both in amateur sports and professional sports, incredible measures being taken to address concussions. I will stick with football because it is one that is dear to me. We have seen more concussion spotters, independent of any team, who are able to identify players experiencing symptoms and can have them pulled from the field and properly assessed. I know that up until that point, it was quite easy for players to be a bit stubborn about what they were experiencing and, frankly, to push off some of the stigma. There was a bit of a stigma to it. If they were not bleeding or did not have an obviously broken bone sticking out through their body, then people would tell them that they were fine. Also, the CFL, the Canadian Football League, as well as the NFL in the United States, are bringing forward the use of guardian caps, a protective shell over the helmets of football players that can now be used in games. The Canadian Football League has estimated it has seen a 42% decrease in training camp concussions, as well as a 20% reduction in head impact severity. This is all to say that there is great work being done already, and it is important that we support that and that we advance that work. I think this bill will help address that with sport organizations in particular. I want to thank the NDP member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford for bringing this forward, and all the previous speakers who have spoken quite eloquently on this bill. I look forward to seeing this come to fruition in the near future.
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