Medical assessment

[Rudra]

Hello everyone ,

I hope everyone is doing great .I have joined here today . Would be seeking guidance from you all in context to recruiting process at Canadian armed forces. I am at very initial stage , have just submitted my application for logistics officer job position and done with 1st medical round wherein questionnaire was given and blood pressure was checked . That’s all . Now last week I have got an email to book a medical assessment. Can anyone please help me what happens at medical assessment and how should I prepare myself for this test ? Need guidance .

 

[medicineman]

The only thing you can study for with this is make sure you know your past medical history - you'll have (or should have) a thorough interview regarding your medical history, any current conditions and how they're being managed. Answer the questions truthfully - lying eventually catches up with you. If there is something that comes up that needs further information, you'll be given a questionnaire for whoever is responsible for you care for that/those issue(s).

 

[Rudra]

Thank you very much for your response. It’s really a helpful info. for me . Can you please also tell me - I am bit of overweight so will this be an issue during this medical assessment test ?

 

[medicineman]

Thank you very much for your response. It’s really a helpful info. for me . Can you please also tell me - I am bit of overweight so will this be an issue during this medical assessment test ?

As long as there aren't any downstream effects. unlikely...

 

[Rudra]

No I don’t have any disease because of my overweight but being going into Armed Forces as a Logistics officer - Is it mandate to be very fit ?
Also please guide me - what is visual acuity & color perception? These were mentioned in the email booked for medical assessment test .
Another question , need your guidance please - what are the parameters to clear/pass this test - medical assessment?

Really sorry to bother you - Those might be silly questions to you but I have no one known to guide me in the recruitment process . Please support .

 

[medicineman]

You have to be fit regardless of what you do - I'd venture to say more so as an officer, since you have to set an example and lead by that. For vision, your minimum requirement is 6/60 with being able to be corrected to 6/9 in the best eye...you can be pretty colour deficient for LOG O. In short, unless you're blind as a bat, even with glasses, you can tell shades of grey, have a pulse, are breathing, can see yourself in the mirror (ie - you're not an undead person like a vampire) and aren't deaf as a post, you should be able to pass.

 

[Rudra]

Thank you very much for your guidance . Appreciate your support .

 

[KeLouJoH]

Are there any diseases or conditions that will summarily disqualify one from military service?

Asking for the sake of curiosity. I don't have any major illnesses.

 

[sarahsmom]

Are there any diseases or conditions that will summarily disqualify one from military service?

Asking for the sake of curiosity. I don't have any major illnesses.

Short of missing limbs, being deaf/blind or being a type 1 diabetic, everything else is on a case by case basis. The RMO will examine your file and take into consideration whatever condition you have, evaluate it against military service requirements, and will either approve or reject. There is no hard and fast list for medical recruiters to say xx condition is a no-go, other than type 1 diabetes (since not having your insulin makes you sick) and missing limbs, or being deaf/blind.

 

[KeLouJoH]

Short of missing limbs, being deaf/blind or being a type 1 diabetic, everything else is on a case by case basis. The RMO will examine your file and take into consideration whatever condition you have, evaluate it against military service requirements, and will either approve or reject. There is no hard and fast list for medical recruiters to say xx condition is a no-go, other than type 1 diabetes (since not having your insulin makes you sick) and missing limbs, or being deaf/blind.

I see, thank you for the response madam.

Question: what about conditions that affect the mind? Schizophrenia, or something less serious like OCD or bipolar.

 

[sarahsmom]

I see, thank you for the response madam.

Question: what about conditions that affect the mind? Schizophrenia, or something less serious like OCD or bipolar.

Again. like I said, every condition is evaluated on a case by case basis by the RMO. No 2 people have the same mental health conditions with all the same symptoms or issues. Some people need medications. Some don't. But the RMO will decide if their condition could be exacerbated by going to war, or serving in austere conditions. They get paid the big bucks to make those decisions.

 

[KeLouJoH]

Again. like I said, every condition is evaluated on a case by case basis by the RMO. No 2 people have the same mental health conditions with all the same symptoms or issues. Some people need medications. Some don't. But the RMO will decide if their condition could be exacerbated by going to war, or serving in austere conditions. They get paid the big bucks to make those decisions.

I see.

May I ask you why you are so knowledgeable about all this? Do you have experience as an admission officer for the armed forces?

 

[sarahsmom]

I see.

May I ask you why you are so knowledgeable about all this? Do you have experience as an admission officer for the armed forces?

There is no such thing as an admission officer. But I have worked in recruiting and I am a medical Technician and at some point in our training they taught us how to do recruit medicals and explained what happens once they are sent off to the RMO.

 

[medicineman]

I see, thank you for the response madam.

Question: what about conditions that affect the mind? Schizophrenia, or something less serious like OCD or bipolar.

I"ll say this - a positive diagnosis of schizophrenia would be a no go...OCD, depending on the person's degree of anxiety and medication requirements, as well as their ability to handle stress - a hard maybe leaning towards unlikely, and Bipolar would be a no go as well, due to unpredictability of sleep patterns and medication requirements - you don't want someone having a manic episode or depressive crash with a firearm.

 

[sarahsmom]

I"ll say this - a positive diagnosis of schizophrenia would be a no go...OCD, depending on the person's degree of anxiety and medication requirements, as well as their ability to handle stress - a hard maybe leaning towards unlikely, and Bipolar would be a no go as well, due to unpredictability of sleep patterns and medication requirements - you don't want someone having a manic episode or depressive crash with a firearm.

Oh definitely. But assuming they present to their medical interview in an appropriate manner, even if we know their chances may be low, we still have to send the file to the RMO. The dependence on medication conditions is definitely a deciding factor civilians have a hard time understanding that while they may be fully functional in the rest of the world, military life just doesn’t play nice with these conditions.

 

[medicineman]

Oh definitely. But assuming they present to their medical interview in an appropriate manner, even if we know their chances may be low, we still have to send the file to the RMO. The dependence on medication conditions is definitely a deciding factor civilians have a hard time understanding that while they may be fully functional in the rest of the world, military life just doesn’t play nice with these conditions.

Having worked both sides - clinical and Recruiting as a PA, regardless of if it goes to the RMO or not (I've stopped files at source just based on active diagnoses not meeting CEMS - but maybe they can't do that these days?), 2 are definitely no go's and if they're diagnosed in the service, they're categoried and eventually released. OCD - depends on severity...and if diagnosed while in service, likely a category +/- release depending on severity and how amenable it is to treatment, since it's an anxiety disorder. I also would tell people with certain diagnoses that odds are they will not get in based on those that don't automatically trigger a CEMS thing - less than 2 eyes that function, deafer than a rock, can't walk to the counter, active psychosis (had the odd one of those), etc to be realistic and invite them to consider withdrawing their application. I was generally politely blunt about it, simply because I don't like get people's hopes up and they have to have realistic expectations of whether they're employable or not.

My $0.02 FWIW.

 

[sarahsmom]

Having worked both sides - clinical and Recruiting as a PA, regardless of if it goes to the RMO or not (I've stopped files at source just based on active diagnoses not meeting CEMS - but maybe they can't do that these days?), 2 are definitely no go's and if they're diagnosed in the service, they're categoried and eventually released. OCD - depends on severity...and if diagnosed while in service, likely a category +/- release depending on severity and how amenable it is to treatment, since it's an anxiety disorder. I also would tell people with certain diagnoses that odds are they will not get in based on those that don't automatically trigger a CEMS thing - less than 2 eyes that function, deafer than a rock, can't walk to the counter, active psychosis (had the odd one of those), etc to be realistic and invite them to consider withdrawing their application. I was generally politely blunt about it, simply because I don't like get people's hopes up and they have to have realistic expectations of whether they're employable or not.

My $0.02 FWIW.

Yeah, they aren’t allowing medics to make those decisions anymore. It goes to the RMO. Also, we’re not allowed to hurt potential applicants feelings by tell them they are less than what we walked. That’s what the RMO is for lol.
They took away the medical recruiter course from the QL6A course. It is now going to be an independent standalone just in time course for any Medic posted to the recruiting center.

 

[medicineman]

Yeah, they aren’t allowing medics to make those decisions anymore. It goes to the RMO. Also, we’re not allowed to hurt potential applicants feelings by tell them they are less than what we walked. That’s what the RMO is for lol.
They took away the medical recruiter course from the QL6A course. It is now going to be an independent standalone just in time course for any Medic posted to the recruiting center.

I recall my Recruit medical was done in the Base Hospital in Victoria by an MO back when there was enough pers to go around (1988). We did the prelims in Calgary and a civvy MD did the medicals there at the base hospital when I was posted there. While I get that they want to use their folks more wisely, a lot of turnaround could be solved simply by having ex-Reg Force PA's and MO's hired on to do the medicals and be given some modicum of discretion regarding who should/shouldn't be put through based on CEMS and knowing operational medicine. Would save a lot of RMO backlog...though hiring a few extra folks for the RMO would also be useful, but since all this makes sense to you and me, it won't happen.

I remember my baskets at CFRC Vic and Van - Recommend Immediate Enrolment, Needs clarification/RMO review and No Phuquing Way. I don't like that they don't allow you to suggest they withdraw the application based on obvious no go criteria - example, dude showed up with only one functioning eye - I actually stopped the medical after the prelim based on that because they didn't meet CEMS, which said categorically they need binocular vision and they were blind - like no light, much less shapes, blind in that eye. You only hurt people's feelings worse if you give them a shred of hope...then they get mad because all they heard was "OK we'll try this" as opposed to "Look if you want to try this, fine, but in my experience and from my knowledge of how this works, it's not going to happen." In the office, I tell folks this "My job is to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear." If you give false hope, they will hear it as something they wanted to hear...the ones really invested in getting in don't react well if treated like that. Sometimes, neither do their Mummies and Duddies either...who may be invested in getting them out of their basement.

 

[ModlrMike]

I did my recruit medical so long ago Centurion was a rank and not a tank.

 

[Blackadder1916]

. . . - I actually stopped the medical after the prelim based on that because they didn't meet CEMS, . . .

When we used to do the Ottawa area recruit medicals at NDHQ MIR (1980s - one day a week they were batched together at the CFRC and brought over as a group), I recall only one whose medical didn't get past the prelims. Of course, he had an "episode", got a bit agitated, ran screaming out of the MIR and made made it up a couple of floors (we were in the basement) before the MPs secured him. Last I saw of him was on a stretcher, being taken away by the Ottawa paramedics. There were the occasional deaf and blind ones but we did the prelims on them and their medicals were completed. Even the character who provided a semen specimen when he was given the bottle for the urine sample got in to see the doc.

Of course, the way it worked for approval of medicals back then was a "board"; the applicant was examined by a doctor (or 6B, but that wasn't often done) who assigned the med category, and another doctor (usually more senior like the BSurg) confirmed the category. The CFRC usually had the confirmed categories within days. Only ones that needed to go outside the local area for approval were aircrew trades (except pilots) whose medicals were sent to CMB Toronto; pilot candidates had to go to Toronto.

In the past (way past), the quality of medical examination could be spotty when there was no (or limited) CFMS facility in the area of a recruiting detachment. When my recruit medical was done in St. John's in the 1970s, there was only a single Med A (Sgt 6A usually) at the CFS. The recruit medicals were done by a civvy MD on contract at the small MIR - it was our family doctor when I had my medical. And sometimes not all the prelims were done there; I didn't have an audiogram done until I got to Cornwallis - remember the experience well - there was a Sea Cadet band practicing outside beside the open window, no booth.