I have a report in front of me prepared by some civilian clinicians in Petawawa on April 25 of this year. It is complaining about the mental health services that are being offered. They say, for example, that “addictions are rampant and we lack medical addictions specialists”, that “clinicians do not have access to any formal clinical supervision”, that “too often psychiatric clinical diagnoses and recommended treatments and opinions are dismissed by the medical officers”. They say that “some medical officers believe clients should have six months' sobriety before they can participate in a residential treatment program” and that “some medical officers do not believe in PTSD diagnosis and some do not believe that PTSD is treatable”.
How can we offer the kind of support to soldiers that you say they deserve if we have medical officers behaving in this way? This comes from civilian clinicians who are trying to see that we get better treatment for our soldiers.