Advice on how to write a Mental Health claim to Vac?

[Soldieratheart]

This is a little personal but I am looking at a release for Depression after 26 years and I am at a loss of what I should say in the VAC form. I do have a diagnosis and feel I can link a lot these issues to chronic pain from service injuries but its hard to find a way to say that in addition to that military service seems to have just deteriorated my mental health over time.
In a perfect world someone has a template but advice on what and how to express it is appreciated. Part of me feels I should use the whole 3000 characters on the form and I am at 1500.
The world of VAC mental health are new to me this past year. It is embarrasing but I have figured out I need to start asking for help in life bottling everything in was not an effective strategy.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

The first thing you need to do is open an account with My VAC https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/e_services?actionName=http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/e_services Then you want to go to the nearest Legion and contact their Service Officer. They will sit down with you and walk you through the whole process. Much, much easier than getting a million different answers off the internet. The process to file is not complicated, but is fraught with procedures and duplication, that has to follow a certain path or the whole thing turns into a nightmare. Once you know it, you can file your own claims through My VAC. Probably not the answer you wanted, but one that will point you down the right path.

 

[Booter]

The legion rep is a must. Best decision I made was bringing them in. If you do anything follow the advice from Fishbone above.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Legion reps are amazing.

 

[Soldieratheart]

Legion reps are amazing.

My Legion rep continually failed to get back to me for months when I asked for help so a little jaded against them.
That said I was able to submit myself and the claim was approved insanely fast so VAC takes the mental health ones very seriously it seems.
I would say they lowballed me a little at 40% but I can appeal if required. Focused on getting as well as possible now.
I wish I had not waited years to submit or gotten help earlier and not needed the claim at all. That said I thought I was on top of my issues and did not want to admit or show any weakness even to myself(stupid).

 

[brihard]

Largely agreed with the above, save that I would skip the local Legion branch and go right to a full time provincial level service officer. Branch service officers are prt time volunteers. Some are amazing, some are very much not. The full time service officers are paid Legion staff who do this as their primary employment, and local branch SOs are mostly just an intake for them. There’s no requirement to start at branch level.

Scroll to your province on this list and pick and of the service officers named, and reach out to them. They’re very experienced and effective.

Contact a Service Officer

 

[Soldieratheart]

Largely agreed with the above, save that I would skip the local Legion branch and go right to a full time provincial level service officer. Branch service officers are prt time volunteers. Some are amazing, some are very much not. The full time service officers are paid Legion staff who do this as their primary employment, and local branch SOs are mostly just an intake for them. There’s no requirement to start at branch level.

Scroll to your province on this list and pick and of the service officers named, and reach out to them. They’re very experienced and effective.

Contact a Service Officer

I would encourage others to reach out to the provintial Legion officers as well.
I may have had a negative experience but I should have simply reached out to a seperate rep instead of writing them off based on one officers failings.

 

[FSTO]

So after a lot of procrastination I've decided to put in a claim for Tinnitus, a bad elbow and shoulder. The on-line forms seems to be quite easy to fill out and I'm basically relying on VAC to go through my medical records to accept or reject the claim. Am I too trusting or should I go see the Legion folks as suggested above

 

[Jarnhamar]

I would recommend taking the time to go to the Legion Provincial Officer for assistance. Tinnitus claims can be tricky to navigate (and denied the first time). The legion officer will be able to help you articulate the claim in a way to be best approved and not do what we all do and underplay the severity of your injury.

 

[Booter]

I was in a unit firing 10000 rounds a week AND explosives- my tinnitus was not duty related. Pretty flooring. The ear specialist said that the tinnitus I have is specifically recognized in the states but not in Canada. Of ALL the claims- I thought that one was the gimme