Grenier

Lieutenant Colonel (LCol) Stephane Grenier joined the military in 1983. He has served in several missions abroad, most notably nine months in Rwanda in 1994/95 and Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2007. He was also deployed for shorter periods of time and has travelled to many regions of the globe including: Cambodia, Kuwait, the Arabian Gulf, Lebanon and Haiti, to name a few.

Faced with his own undiagnosed PTSD and related depression upon return from Rwanda, he took a personal interest in the way the Canadian Forces was dealing with mental health issues. In 2001 he coined the term Operational Stress Injury (OSI) and conceived, developed, implemented and managed a government based national peer-support program for the Canadian military named the Operational Stress Injury Social Support (OSISS) Program.

Today OSISS delivers peer support to CF personnel, Veterans and their families affected by mental health issues, and assists those who have suffered the loss of a loved one through a Bereavement Support Program. In 2007 LCol Grenier was named the Operational Stress Injury Special Advisor to the Chief of Military Personnel and entrusted with the task of creating a Canadian Forces-wide work place, mental health education program. His work led to the launch of a second highly successful non-clinical mental health program within the Canadian Forces named the Mental Health & Operational Stress Injury Joint Speakers Bureau. The Joint Speakers Bureau (JSB) has demonstrated that it is one of the most significant prevention initiatives introduced in the Canadian Forces. The JSB is a key enabler fostering organizational and attitudinal change regarding mental health in the military workplace.

In 2009, LCol Grenier spearheaded the development of a corporate mental health awareness campaign that was launched nationally by the Canadian Forces Chief of Defence Staff. The campaign was endorsed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Association, and the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health as an example of corporate leadership in reducing the stigma that is often associated with mental health illnesses. LCol Grenier was awarded a Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada for taking the concept of peer support and driving it from the grass-roots up into a formal federal government program.

In 2009 he was awarded a national Champion of Mental Health Award by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health. He accepted these and other awards on behalf of all those involved in non clinical mental health initiatives and continues to acknowledge publicly the difficult and essential work peer support staff and peer educators do in shaping the future of mental health in Canada. He is now a member of the Workforce Advisory Committee of the Mental Health Commission of Canada and in April, 2010 he became a part time member of the staff at the Commission, on loan from the Canadian Forces.

The Trauma Speakers Bureau

"Be Inspired"

" the difficult work performed by peer support staff and peer educators is essential in shaping the future of mental health in Canada. "

- LCol Stephane Grenier

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LCol. Stephane Grenier