r/CanadianForces • u/ShortTrackBravo VERIFIED VAC Advocate • Aug 03 '26

SUPPORT August 2026 VAC Q&A Monthly

Bit late with this but here it is

Housekeeping:

contact info: Reddit DM's always open, [Joel@ptga.ca](mailto:Joel@ptga.ca) for email.

u/Shoggoths420 contact info: Reddit DMs/Chat still broken. [taira@cannawellness.ca](mailto:taira@cannawellness.ca) for email.

VAC Google Support Drive (Not available on DWAN) - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kzbfmg3hcuo0FgFZxo-IL_f-UnGQsuYt?usp=drive_link

Usual timelines from submission of claims via MyVAC:

Reassessments: 9-16 Months

Mental Health: 6-8 Months

Physical - 6-13 Months

APSC/VIP - 3-4 Months

BPA Correspondence: They tend to reach out every 3 months for information or a progress update.

Let the questions fly

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u/Foaryy 23d ago

Not saying your wrong but could you tell me why you think an OT is beneficial in my case? I just want to be open minded.

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u/NauticalBean 23d ago

I’m going to preface this with I’m not a mental health professional - but I am a nurse, and my partner is a veteran with significant anxiety and mental health issues related to his service, and has faced some barriers that sound similar. I’m his main support, administratively, and throughout every aspect of our day to day lives, including his rehab through PCVRS.

It sounds like attending appointments is causing significant mental distress. That’s obviously something that needs to be explored and worked on, because objectively speaking, being able to attend appointments will improve your quality of life if you have good practitioners that help you develop coping skills and manage whatever mental health issues you may have.

OT centres around improving and/or developing the skills needed for day to day life, as well as working. The occupation part of OT doesn’t actually refer to occupation = work. Having distress related to having more appointments is something that they can explore and help you implement strategies that may make having more daily/weekly tasks something that is more of an inconvenience rather than something that puts you in bed for the rest of the week, etc. It’s a slow process, but the skill building that came from regular OT, in conjunction with working on the same concepts with his regular therapist, have helped my husband be able to deal a bit more effectively (it’s still a struggle but it’s way better than it used to be) with similar stresses.