Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In terms of the release of modern-day veterans, we have been finding for a number of years that the complexity of the health and re-establishment circumstances of those releasing members is different, obviously, from the traditional clients with whom Veterans Affairs had been dealing with prior to that. What we are seeing is a combination of physical and mental health conditions among those being released in our modern-day veteran population.
For instance, at the present time, in our rehabilitation program we have participants, 55% of whom have both a physical and a mental health condition. You can appreciate that this combination presents significant challenges, not only for the veteran but for the veteran's family and for the re-establishment of that individual in civilian society. That complexity of physical conditions, often accompanied by pain, mental health conditions, the increase of substance abuse and addictions, have all increased the complexity of those who need case management services through Veterans Affairs.
So the importance of that case management relationship is critical in terms of working with a veteran, facilitating access to services within the community where the veteran resides, and supporting the family to deal with those complex issues. When the veteran is at a stage of readiness from a health perspective, and if the veteran needs support in terms of vocational re-establishment, it's putting those supports in place to assist him or her to attain suitable civilian employment.
That whole process, the engagement of the case manager, can take a fairly significant period of time.
For those reasons, we talk about the differences in terms of our modern-day as opposed to our traditional veterans.