A Well-Being Construct for Veterans’ Policy, Programming and Research

Abstract: In legislation, the mandate of Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) extends to the administration of such acts and orders in council relating to “(i) the care, treatment or reestablishment in civil life of any person who served in the Canadian Forces … and (ii) the care of the dependants or survivors of any person referred to in subparagraph (i)…” VAC’s Plans and Priorities report identifies “well-being” as one of the Department’s reestablishment strategic outcomes but a clear description of the concept is lacking. Lack of a commonly accepted definition of well-being has hampered progress in developing and measuring outcomes of VAC policies and programs. This paper describes the Veterans’ well-being construct that emerged at VAC over the past decade in a consensus-seeking, multidisciplinary process informed by reviews of published literature, expert consultations and evidence from the Life After Service Studies (LASS). The objective of this paper is to describe the well-being construct and place it within a conceptual framework with utility in (1) the development and evaluation of policy, programming and service delivery and (2) research in Veterans’ issues. The goal is to support the well-being of Canadian Veterans and their families in life after service.