Pubdate: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Kevin Bissett Page: C3 WE MUST DEAL WITH PTSD, RCMP OFFICIAL SAYS The death of RCMP Cpl. Ron Francis, who helped draw attention to post-traumatic stress disorder among emergency first responders, is a terrible loss that underscores the need to deal with the issue, the RCMP's commanding officer in New Brunswick said Tuesday. "It's unfortunate that this condition, if you will, took over and consumed him, but he didn't let go," assistant commissioner Roger Brown told a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Fredericton. "His goal was to try to make some sense of it himself and to bring an awareness to what this is all about." Francis was found dead Monday afternoon at the Kingsclear First Nation. It appears no one else was involved in his death, but Brown wouldn't provide any details about the circumstances of how Francis died. Brown said the police force was doing all it could to get Francis the support he needed, meeting with him as recently as Sunday. "I know there will be much speculation about why this happened, and assumptions may be made," Brown said. "Unfortunately, this is not the outcome that I would've hoped for, that I would've anticipated." Francis, who served with the Mounties for 22 years, made national headlines last year after he complained that he wasn't allowed to smoke medicinal marijuana for PTSD while in uniform. Last November, Francis returned his red serge uniform, saying he was doing so on orders from his superiors, and he accused the RCMP and the federal government of not doing enough to support officers with PTSD. At the time, the RCMP said its officers who are prescribed medicinal marijuana should not be in red serge or regular uniform while taking their medication as it wouldn't portray the right message to the public. Brown said on Tuesday that the uniform still belonged to Francis. He said his goal was to have Francis, who was on leave from the RCMP, return as a contributing member of the force. "This wasn't a pot-smoking issue. This wasn't a red serge issue," Brown said. "This was a cry for help and a need to raise the awareness as to what PTSD really is within the organizations that we all work for." T.J. Burke, a friend of Francis since childhood who was also his lawyer, said the RCMP helped get him into a program in British Columbia for people coping with PTSD. But Burke said he believes the Mounties could have done more. "To feel not supported was very difficult for Ron, and I think that caused quite a bit of pressure on him," Burke said. "At the end of the day, I believe they made their best efforts, but I'm hard-pressed to say they did everything they could." He said the federal and provincial governments need to set up centres with experts to offer care for front-line responders who have PTSD symptoms. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt