March 19, 2025 • 11 mins
Welcome back to The Most Painful Podcast! We're continuing our Live from Invictus series, bringing you exclusive conversations straight from the 2025 Invictus Games in Vancouver, BC. In this episode, I had an unexpected but incredible reunion with Bruce Thompson—we discovered that we had served together in the same unit years ago. Bruce is now dedicating his time to supporting fellow Veterans through his work with Veterans Connect, an Edmonton-based organization focused on mental health and peer support. We discuss the challenges Veterans face, the importance of staying connected, and the work being done to ensure no Veteran struggles alone.Stay tuned for more powerful stories from Live from Invictus!
Veterans Connect - https://veteransconnect.ca/
For more about the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence visit https://www.veteranschronicpain.ca/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/chronicpainCOE
Twitter https://twitter.com/chronicpainCOE
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chronicpain_coe/
Veterans Connect - https://veteransconnect.ca/
For more about the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence visit https://www.veteranschronicpain.ca/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/chronicpainCOE
Twitter https://twitter.com/chronicpainCOE
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chronicpain_coe/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is SSN Story Studio Network.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome to this special series of the Most Painful Podcast,
recorded live from the twenty twenty five Victus Games at Vancouver, BC.
I'm your host Tom Hoppey. On this episode, we're going
to talk to Bruce Thompson, who was working with an
Edmonton group called Veterans Connect Canada, which helps veterans with
(00:27):
mental health. I bumped into Bruce at the Games and
realized that we had served together many years ago, so
I'm looking forward to discussing this with Bruce. Bruce, Welcome to.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
The show Veterans Connect Canada. It was the brainchild of
myself and a couple of my friends out in Peachland, BC,
and I happened to be out there doing a curling
event for Sportsnet at the time, and we had a
chance to get together and have dinner. And I had
just heard about the loss of another soldier and I
(00:59):
was really pissed off about it, and so my two
best friends partners. They work with the Mental Health Commission
of Canada quite often and a little closer so they
work with the Mental Health Commission of Canada helping them
to develop their courses so that they've worked on wrote
to mental health Readiness, mental health, first Aid for Veterans,
(01:20):
first responders, first Nations, that kind of thing, and we
got talking about what we could possibly do to help veterans.
Being one myself, I served for twenty years, started in
the reserves with the Royal Infanant Regiment, ended with the
South of Bridal Light Horse, and I'm still very much
connected to the South of Bridal Light Horse. My wife
(01:41):
and I have worked with the association. We've helped to
lead battlefield tours and we talked with our veterans quite
a bit about mental health. I can very easily get
on a soapbox about it. Definitely not I'm not the expert.
I'm the face and the voice, and my partners Garge
Jung and SHAWNA. Hickerson are the brains of the outfit
(02:04):
and we we just we just we want to help veterans.
We're developing a mental health resiliency course right now that
we are aiming specifically at reservists because the reservists we
feel are underserved when it comes to mental health and resiliency.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And that's that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So why is that?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Why is it?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I mean for audience, I mean, you know, I understand
that most militaries in the world will have some form
of a reserve and a regular force. But why is
a reserves in Canada? Why do you feel that they're
under service?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, I mean, reservists are the true citizens soldiers.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
They're they're somebody who works nine to five Monday to
Friday a lot of times.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Or their young students.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
They're underserved, in my personal opinion is because the reserve
units do not have access to all of the facilities
the reg Force members do. If you're a reg Force member,
you're on a base.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
You've got a you've got the the.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Base clinic, you've got access to other things that reservists
just don't have to do, especially if they're from smaller,
smaller communities like Kamloops or something like this. And so
a lot of these guys and gals right now are
they're going on tasking with the reg Force and they
finish their tasking overseas and they're given four or five
(03:22):
days when they get home, and then they just sent
home to their units, to their homes, to their families.
And there hasn't been enough resiliency training for those soldiers.
And so we're trying to remedy.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
That and I guess one would argue there's probably that
in the reg force to the resiliency training. Resiliency training
is not It's kind of a part of the game,
is it.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
I mean from you and you remember from our day
in the military, there was no such thing as resiliency
training or mental health training. There was nobody's said the
words mental health when we were soldiers back in the
seventies and eighties. And it's become it's come to the forefront,
I think most most recently because of Afghanistan and and
(04:11):
all of the soldiers that took their lives when they
came back from overseas, and also some of the guys
that came back from Bosnia that were there when when
all the real trouble started, for the for the NATO
troops that were in their un troops that were in there.
So I talk with a lot of the guys that
(04:32):
were in my unit. I'm kind of the guy if
somebody's having a bad day there, you know, they always
know they can call me, we can go have a coffee,
we can talk about it. We can And I think
that's one of the most important things about mental health
is verbalizing the things that are happening to happening to
you and trying to sort out why and work on
(04:57):
preventing that from happening in the future.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean that's the you know, we talk about resilience.
Soldiers one would, I would suggest, are resilient to begin with,
but we're talking at different types of resilient just because
of the job they have to do and also, you know,
talking with somebody that's important the community side. But would
you guys have gone a step further and actually created
a proper structured program.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Correct, Yep, we're That's exactly what we're trying to do.
It's very important. Mental health has come to the forefront
of society a lot in the last ten fifteen years,
and the soldiers should be no exception. You know, there's
the mythos of being a soldier where nothing bothers you there.
(05:43):
You know, you're rough, tough, ready to go. Anything you
see has no effect. We know that's not true. We
see it when where our soldiers come back with how
they react over medication. Using alcohol and illicit drugs tends
to really be a problem with people that have suffered
(06:04):
from or experience or I shouldn't say suffering, have experienced trauma,
and we want to give them, We want to build
a toolbox for them that can help them not do that.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, and I think that's the toolbox is very important.
And also I think the knowledge because everybody who leaves
the service, I would suggest if they're have mental health
or not, they are going through.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
A form of transition.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yes, absolutely, because the military mindset is very well ingrained,
and we have podcasts on that talking about that. So
we won't get into it on this one. So maybe
you can tell me a little bit about the program
that you have and how it looks.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And so the program that is being designed right now
is being designed by Gerard and Shauna.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
They are deep into it right now.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I haven't had a lot of exposure to it yet
because I've been busy working in my other life. They
do this kind of design work and stuff for a living.
What I bring to the table is the military experience
side of it, having served, and one of the very
important things about that having a military veteran involved is
(07:17):
we speak the same language soldiers.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
We have our own vocabulary.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
When we sit down with a veteran and do an
interview with them. It's a very long process compared to
a TV interview, where you are given ten minutes a
prop and you go and you sit down and you
talk about five or six things. Our process is very,
very different. When we speak with veterans. It starts with
a coffee and we chat and then we have a
list of topics that we will talk about or I
(07:44):
want to talk about, and I'll send it home with
our subject and give them a sharpians. Anything you do
not want to talk about crossout, we won't do it.
Then we'll sit down, we'll have another coffee, we'll discuss,
and then we'll finally get the interview side of it,
where it's just me, a camera and the person that
we're going to talk with, and it's not really an interview,
(08:08):
it's a conversation that I guide and it's remarkable how
much we can talk about in the space of an
hour or an hour and a half. And if you
go to the website, you'll see Colonel John Conrad's interview
and a young lady by the name of Julie bask
who was an amazing person to meet. When we first met,
(08:31):
she was depressed, she had suicidal ideations. She met with us,
and we got to tell we got to help her
tell her story. And so we interviewed her and then
a year later we talked to her again and to
see the difference in a year, going from not in
(08:55):
a good place to engaged, buying a house, working with
working with people. And the big thing was the communication
side of it, telling her parents through her videos what
she had experienced and having her her parents now know
all of the trauma she went through that made such
a huge difference to her life. That if we do nothing,
(09:16):
if I do nothing else with this, with this nonprofit,
that's my win, that's my Academy award.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, and that's that's important because the knowing you know,
sure someone can go through program, but what happens three four,
six months down the road, Yes, exactly right, that's the
proof of something's happening, right because you know, I always
say to veterans is you can't wipe out your identity
who you were, but we can learn to live with it.
We can draw from our strength and differences and move
(09:47):
forward in life. So the program's being developed correct, going
to be launched in Alberta by the sounds of it.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
First, Yes, I have built in guinea pigs. Actually I
have the South of bertolight Horse, which was my last
jam and the r S m uh is h is
very much uh interested in and and bring us to
his troops.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And if we would really like to.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Start small, maybe with just the Edmonton units, see how
it goes, see if we can get involvement from the
Canadian forces from back. But this is also fun that
we do this all ourselves. We you know, we're just
We're just one of these one of these small groups
trying to make a difference.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Well, I thank you for that, sure appreciate and thanks
for taking the time out of the games to talk
to us today.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
MH for feedback about the show. More information on chronic pain,
you can visit our website Veterans Chronic Pain dot ca A.
And if you want more information on Invictus, you can
go to their website Invictusgamesfoundation dot org. Remember to like, follow, subscribe,
(11:08):
and share this podcast. Thanks for listening to a special
Invictus Live series as part of the Most Painful Podcast.
I'm your host, Tom Hoppy. Stay safe and keep the
Hope alive.
This is SSN Story Studio Network.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome to this special series of the Most Painful Podcast,
recorded live from the twenty twenty five Victus Games at Vancouver, BC.
I'm your host Tom Hoppey. On this episode, we're going
to talk to Bruce Thompson, who was working with an
Edmonton group called Veterans Connect Canada, which helps veterans with
(00:27):
mental health. I bumped into Bruce at the Games and
realized that we had served together many years ago, so
I'm looking forward to discussing this with Bruce. Bruce, Welcome to.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
The show Veterans Connect Canada. It was the brainchild of
myself and a couple of my friends out in Peachland, BC,
and I happened to be out there doing a curling
event for Sportsnet at the time, and we had a
chance to get together and have dinner. And I had
just heard about the loss of another soldier and I
(00:59):
was really pissed off about it, and so my two
best friends partners. They work with the Mental Health Commission
of Canada quite often and a little closer so they
work with the Mental Health Commission of Canada helping them
to develop their courses so that they've worked on wrote
to mental health Readiness, mental health, first Aid for Veterans,
(01:20):
first responders, first Nations, that kind of thing, and we
got talking about what we could possibly do to help veterans.
Being one myself, I served for twenty years, started in
the reserves with the Royal Infanant Regiment, ended with the
South of Bridal Light Horse, and I'm still very much
connected to the South of Bridal Light Horse. My wife
(01:41):
and I have worked with the association. We've helped to
lead battlefield tours and we talked with our veterans quite
a bit about mental health. I can very easily get
on a soapbox about it. Definitely not I'm not the expert.
I'm the face and the voice, and my partners Garge
Jung and SHAWNA. Hickerson are the brains of the outfit
(02:04):
and we we just we just we want to help veterans.
We're developing a mental health resiliency course right now that
we are aiming specifically at reservists because the reservists we
feel are underserved when it comes to mental health and resiliency.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And that's that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
So why is that?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Why is it?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I mean for audience, I mean, you know, I understand
that most militaries in the world will have some form
of a reserve and a regular force. But why is
a reserves in Canada? Why do you feel that they're
under service?
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Well, I mean, reservists are the true citizens soldiers.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
They're they're somebody who works nine to five Monday to
Friday a lot of times.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Or their young students.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
They're underserved, in my personal opinion is because the reserve
units do not have access to all of the facilities
the reg Force members do. If you're a reg Force member,
you're on a base.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
You've got a you've got the the.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Base clinic, you've got access to other things that reservists
just don't have to do, especially if they're from smaller,
smaller communities like Kamloops or something like this. And so
a lot of these guys and gals right now are
they're going on tasking with the reg Force and they
finish their tasking overseas and they're given four or five
(03:22):
days when they get home, and then they just sent
home to their units, to their homes, to their families.
And there hasn't been enough resiliency training for those soldiers.
And so we're trying to remedy.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
That and I guess one would argue there's probably that
in the reg force to the resiliency training. Resiliency training
is not It's kind of a part of the game,
is it.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
I mean from you and you remember from our day
in the military, there was no such thing as resiliency
training or mental health training. There was nobody's said the
words mental health when we were soldiers back in the
seventies and eighties. And it's become it's come to the forefront,
I think most most recently because of Afghanistan and and
(04:11):
all of the soldiers that took their lives when they
came back from overseas, and also some of the guys
that came back from Bosnia that were there when when
all the real trouble started, for the for the NATO
troops that were in their un troops that were in there.
So I talk with a lot of the guys that
(04:32):
were in my unit. I'm kind of the guy if
somebody's having a bad day there, you know, they always
know they can call me, we can go have a coffee,
we can talk about it. We can And I think
that's one of the most important things about mental health
is verbalizing the things that are happening to happening to
you and trying to sort out why and work on
(04:57):
preventing that from happening in the future.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean that's the you know, we talk about resilience.
Soldiers one would, I would suggest, are resilient to begin with,
but we're talking at different types of resilient just because
of the job they have to do and also, you know,
talking with somebody that's important the community side. But would
you guys have gone a step further and actually created
a proper structured program.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
Correct, Yep, we're That's exactly what we're trying to do.
It's very important. Mental health has come to the forefront
of society a lot in the last ten fifteen years,
and the soldiers should be no exception. You know, there's
the mythos of being a soldier where nothing bothers you there.
(05:43):
You know, you're rough, tough, ready to go. Anything you
see has no effect. We know that's not true. We
see it when where our soldiers come back with how
they react over medication. Using alcohol and illicit drugs tends
to really be a problem with people that have suffered
(06:04):
from or experience or I shouldn't say suffering, have experienced trauma,
and we want to give them, We want to build
a toolbox for them that can help them not do that.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, and I think that's the toolbox is very important.
And also I think the knowledge because everybody who leaves
the service, I would suggest if they're have mental health
or not, they are going through.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
A form of transition.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yes, absolutely, because the military mindset is very well ingrained,
and we have podcasts on that talking about that. So
we won't get into it on this one. So maybe
you can tell me a little bit about the program
that you have and how it looks.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And so the program that is being designed right now
is being designed by Gerard and Shauna.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
They are deep into it right now.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I haven't had a lot of exposure to it yet
because I've been busy working in my other life. They
do this kind of design work and stuff for a living.
What I bring to the table is the military experience
side of it, having served, and one of the very
important things about that having a military veteran involved is
(07:17):
we speak the same language soldiers.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
We have our own vocabulary.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
When we sit down with a veteran and do an
interview with them. It's a very long process compared to
a TV interview, where you are given ten minutes a
prop and you go and you sit down and you
talk about five or six things. Our process is very,
very different. When we speak with veterans. It starts with
a coffee and we chat and then we have a
list of topics that we will talk about or I
(07:44):
want to talk about, and I'll send it home with
our subject and give them a sharpians. Anything you do
not want to talk about crossout, we won't do it.
Then we'll sit down, we'll have another coffee, we'll discuss,
and then we'll finally get the interview side of it,
where it's just me, a camera and the person that
we're going to talk with, and it's not really an interview,
(08:08):
it's a conversation that I guide and it's remarkable how
much we can talk about in the space of an
hour or an hour and a half. And if you
go to the website, you'll see Colonel John Conrad's interview
and a young lady by the name of Julie bask
who was an amazing person to meet. When we first met,
(08:31):
she was depressed, she had suicidal ideations. She met with us,
and we got to tell we got to help her
tell her story. And so we interviewed her and then
a year later we talked to her again and to
see the difference in a year, going from not in
(08:55):
a good place to engaged, buying a house, working with
working with people. And the big thing was the communication
side of it, telling her parents through her videos what
she had experienced and having her her parents now know
all of the trauma she went through that made such
a huge difference to her life. That if we do nothing,
(09:16):
if I do nothing else with this, with this nonprofit,
that's my win, that's my Academy award.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, and that's that's important because the knowing you know,
sure someone can go through program, but what happens three four,
six months down the road, Yes, exactly right, that's the
proof of something's happening, right because you know, I always
say to veterans is you can't wipe out your identity
who you were, but we can learn to live with it.
We can draw from our strength and differences and move
(09:47):
forward in life. So the program's being developed correct, going
to be launched in Alberta by the sounds of it.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
First, Yes, I have built in guinea pigs. Actually I
have the South of bertolight Horse, which was my last
jam and the r S m uh is h is
very much uh interested in and and bring us to
his troops.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And if we would really like to.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Start small, maybe with just the Edmonton units, see how
it goes, see if we can get involvement from the
Canadian forces from back. But this is also fun that
we do this all ourselves. We you know, we're just
We're just one of these one of these small groups
trying to make a difference.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Well, I thank you for that, sure appreciate and thanks
for taking the time out of the games to talk
to us today.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
MH for feedback about the show. More information on chronic pain,
you can visit our website Veterans Chronic Pain dot ca A.
And if you want more information on Invictus, you can
go to their website Invictusgamesfoundation dot org. Remember to like, follow, subscribe,
(11:08):
and share this podcast. Thanks for listening to a special
Invictus Live series as part of the Most Painful Podcast.
I'm your host, Tom Hoppy. Stay safe and keep the
Hope alive.
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