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Blue Ribbon Panel Tables Recommendations for Enhancing Deployment Support Services

Canadian/Military Family Resource Centres (C/MFRCs) and Deployment Support Groups (DSGs) do important and necessary work to support families whose loved ones are deployed. On October 16 in Ottawa, the Blue Ribbon Panel for deployment support gathered to present to the Canadian Forces (CF) Family Deployment and Reunion Advisory Committee their heir recommendations on enhancing these valuable services.

The Blue Ribbon Panel is made up of deployment support specialists who have joined forces to share experiences and identify ways of improving deployment support services for CF families. Their recommendations were framed around the idea that CF families should have access to useful and standardized deployment support options that meet the diverse needs of families.

The Panel noted that while effective working practices for deployment support have been developed at several C/MFRC and DSG locations, these practices should now be in place across the board. “Standards need to be created for deployment support initiatives to ensure that the same level of support is available nationwide,” said LCol Joe Pollock. “We need standard practices, articulated across Canada.”

To create these standard practices, the Panel first recommended that an overarching process be put in place to allow C/MFRCs and DSGs to contact local families with greater ease and more consistency. They suggested that a national database of CF family locations be developed so that family members would always be contacted by their closest Centre of support.

The Panel also recommended that the CF Family Deployment and Reunion Advisory Committee consider the need to determine which families should be called by C/MFRCs and which ones by DSGs. Through a national system of DSG and C/MFRC cooperation, the Panel felt that all families could be contacted efficiently and made aware of the support services available to them. “We need work together to make sure no one falls through the cracks,” LCol Pollock stressed.

A key concern for the Panel was preventing DSGs and C/MFRCs from mistakenly placing warm-line calls to families at inappropriate times. The Panel recommended developing a method for information sharing to ensure that families are not called during times of repatriation or casualties.

Lastly, the Panel discussed the need for standardized training for deployment support staff. The Panel suggested that training in administration, communication and intervention skills, situational awareness, and best practices would be valuable, and should considered by the Advisory Committee as part of a national model for deployment support services.