Initial testing of a guided, internet-delivered couple intervention for PTSD and relationship enhancement: Couple HOPES

Principal Investigator

Funding Sponsor

True Patriot Love Foundation

Lay Summary

This project was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Couple HOPES. The study has contributed to improvements in how the participants’ relationship functions, trauma recovery, and PTSD symptom reduction for military members, veterans, and their partners. The project made these contributions by providing the Couple HOPES intervention and free online PTSD webinars, providing introductory information on how to identify PTSD symptoms, to military members, veterans and their partners across Canada. In addition, the intervention and webinars provided knowledge and new skills to help military members, veterans, and their partners identify and reduce PTSD symptoms, de-escalate interpersonal conflict, reduce distress, and improve interpersonal communication. The entire project was highly accessible as users only required a smartphone and an internet connection to access the intervention and webinars. This accessibility enabled Couple HOPES to reach many military members, veterans, and their partners across all of Canada, particularly in rural and remote areas where there is a lack of professional mental health support

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has financially supported this research through the COVID-19 Mental Health & Substance Use Needs and Delivery operating grant

Evaluate counter-flow for abdominal and pelvic hemorrhage in swine models of non-compressible intra-abdominal hemorrhage.

Principal Investigator

Funding Sponsor

Defence Research and Development Canada

Lay Summary

This research examines how an animal care protocol describing a swine model of non-compressible intra-abdominal hemorrhage (NCIAH) was amended from a pre-existing protocol to increase the lethality of the model and incorporate aspects of field care such as hypothermia, coagulopathy, and permissive hypotension. CounterFlow was evaluated for its ability to improve outcomes from non-compressible truncal hemorrhage (NCTH) in a challenging model that incorporated dilutional coagulopathy and hypothermia. A Kaplan-Meier survival curve demonstrated significant survival difference (p = 0.007) between the CounterFlow group and the control group of animals receiving only standardized crystalloid resuscitation. We also found that CounterFlow-Gauze effectively prevents death and demonstrates low hemorrhage volume in a swine model of junctional hemorrhage. CounterFlow-AP demonstrated a significant survival benefit in a clinically relevant in vivo closed abdomen model of NCIAH. In conclusion, CounterFlow-AP and CounterFlow-Gauze are promising agents for the future pre-hospital management of hemorrhage, which is the leading cause of preventable death on the battlefield.

Literature review on vision requirements for emerging display technologies in military aviation. (Task 66)

Principal Investigator

Funding Sponsor

Defence Research and Development Canada

Lay Summary

The benefits of binocular over monocular viewing include an expanded field of view, improved detection of low contrast targets, and stereoscopic depth perception. In this paper, we consider such operational tasks in the context of relevant and widely used binocular devices: helmet-mount displays (HMDs) and AR/VR, night vision goggles (NVGs), and teleoperator displays for air to air refueling (AAR) or drones. Stereopsis is essential for optimal use of binocular HMDs where the displayed imagery is positioned at a location in 3D space using binocular disparity. However, binocular and monocular HMDs do not rely on stereopsis to support depth perception, thus they add no further requirements for stereopsis. When binocular HMDs are used to perform tasks that rely on good depth perception, the requirements for stereopsis should be equivalent to those required to perform the task with unaided vision. This recommendation applies to traditional military HMDs as well as commercial AR/VR devices which are becoming more common, particularly for training purposes. As is the case for other stereoscopic display systems, the task and extent to which other supporting depth information is available will determine the need for and impact of stereoscopic vision. While the benefits of stereopsis for use of night vision goggles (NVGs) devices are less established, stereoscopic performance is degraded but within limits set by vision assessment standards. Therefore, operators need to be aware of the potential loss of depth and distance information when using NVGs. Otherwise, as for HMDs, the recommendation for use of binocular devices for tasks that depend on accurate depth perception should be the same as those for unaided vision. Teleoperation for aerial refueling in some scenarios uses stereoscopic displays and so is specifically designed to capitalize on depth information from binocular disparity. Thus, stereopsis is essential for these operators, as it will be for any remote task performed with little additional depth information using a stereoscopic display. For all technologies examined here, close attention to the task demands will help to refine and target vision standards and device characteristics to operational needs.

Sharing of military Veterans’ mental health data across Canada: A scoping review.

Principal Investigator

Funding Sponsor

True Patriot Love Foundation

Lay Summary

Data on Canadian (military) Veterans’ mental health are needed for related services, research and development. It is unclear to what extent such data are available and connected across their sources. This scoping review of research and other publications found data sources related to this population’s mental health, with no policies (nor guidelines) specifically addressing information sharing across such data sources. Key challenges impeding this information sharing involve lack of: centralization (or coordination), collaboration, specific policies (and guidelines), and standardization. We recommend that Canada establish a repository of relevant data sources, specific policies (and guidelines), and standardization for such information sharing.

LeveRaging routinEly collected heAlth data to enhanCe Veteran and family Health (REACH)

Principal Investigator

Funding Sponsor

True Patriot Love Foundation

Lay Summary

The REACH study received funding through the True Patriot Love Foundation and CIMVHR initiative to better understand the use of provincial routinely collected health and social data to support the health and wellbeing of Canadian Veterans using data of Veterans living in Ontario. The funding allowed us to create a permanent, ongoing resource at ICES for scientists, policy makers and service providers interested in using these data to evaluate their programs or policies or ask questions about Veteran health and healthcare access. In addition, we have worked to identify the ideal comparison group among non-Veterans in Ontario to complete studies comparing health and healthcare comparisons between Veterans and civilians, so that others may more easily begin using these data themselves. We supported an MSc and a PhD student and together produced four peer-reviewed publications looking at sex differences and the impact of length of military service on chronic disease prevalence, cancer incidence, and health services use. We hope to work closely with key persons and organizations to ensure that this accessible data source and our findings feed directly into improving health and well-being of Canadian veterans and their families.

Analysis of data of a lab study on alternative torso-borne armour and load carriage equipment on female varsity-level athletes. (Task 67)

Principal Investigator

Funding Sponsor

Defence Research and Development Canada

Lay Summary

To improve Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) load carriage systems, Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) contracted Queen’s University to develop the Objective Mannequin-based Biomechanical Assessment of Soldier Torso-borne Clothing and Individual Equipment (OMBAST-CIE) to reduce reliance on human-based studies. Two mannequins were built to represent average Canadian Army males and females. The female mannequin has yet to be validated against human-based data, which is a necessary step prior to use by designers and those buying torso-based load-bearing equipment for use by CAF women.

For female mannequin validation, HumanSystems® Incorporated (HSI®) was contracted to conduct a study to provide data. Data were obtained from eight athletic, civilian females using realistic loads, clothing and individual equipment (CIE). Unfortunately, HSI® was unable to complete data analysis and reporting in the allotted time, therefore the HSI® Contractor report was not completed. University of Guelph obtained a CIMVHR contract to complete the methods and results sections of the report, which they did successfully.