Thank you, Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen of the committee, for the opportunity to appear before you today.
I am Mark Zamorski, and I am the head of the deployment health section of the Canadian Forces Health Services group. My section mainly does research in the domain of mental health and related problems, such as suicide and family violence. We have also developed and actually support the enhanced post-deployment screening program for mental health. In addition to research, we participate in other scientific activities, notably three recent expert panels on traumatic brain injury, suicide prevention, and the prevention of family violence. Over the past year alone, our three scientific staff have been authors or co-authors of 10 peer-reviewed publications and have presented 15 abstracts at national and international scientific meetings.
We currently have three major active research protocols, two of which deal with understanding the effects of mental disorders and traumatic brain injury, respectively, on occupational fitness. I am also the principal investigator of the 2013 Canadian Forces mental health survey. This study, done by Statistics Canada on behalf of DND, involved interviewing 9,000 currently serving personnel to explore, first, how the mission in Afghanistan and, second, how the renewal of our mental health system have influenced the need for mental health care in the CF.
By training, I am a family doctor, with additional training in public health. Before joining DND, I was on the faculty of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School for nine years.
I am prepared to answer questions on the research and other scientific activities of my section. I can also comment generally on the science that lies behind the prevention and control of mental health problems and related phenomena in military organizations.
Thank you again for the opportunity to appear here before you today.