Certainly.
As I said in my original presentation, psychosocial rehabilitation, as we understand it now, exists as a set of principles but is not actually consistently practised. However, I believe that if a working group could be set forward between Veterans Affairs, with veterans and families on that working group of course, and DND, we'd come up with basically the principles being applied.
With regard to those principles, there are a number of treatment modalities, but one of them is an active care team. This active care team essentially would consist of anywhere from 10 to 12 multidisciplinary practitioners. It would include such people as medical doctors, of course, but it would also include professional coaches. It would include as well someone who would help them fill out the forms for their disability benefits. We're talking about seriously disabled veterans, and no seriously disabled veterans should be filling out their own forms. This is patently absurd.
Next you would have individuals who would help them with basic care needs in the home. When someone suffers a severe either physical or psychological injury, all of life is relearned. It's relearned in terms of self-esteem, it's relearned in terms of motor skills. All of those skills are not being addressed. They can't be addressed in a once-a-week appointment in a psychologist's office.
This 10- to 12-member practitioner team would have no more than 100 clients. These practitioners would be dedicated to only these 100 individuals. This process would last certainly over the transition period, so over a period of months, and the families then could be brought in with regard to the principles of psychosocial rehabilitation in terms of education. There would be intensive modules for teaching the family how to interact, support, and understand when that veteran screws up at home, because God knows, seriously disabled veterans screw up a lot at home. The families don't understand and often take it personally.
If we had a work team of true integration, that would bridge the gap between the transition experience and the hand-off from National Defence to Veterans Affairs. It would ensure a seamless, a truly seamless, transition. This team would be available to those veterans 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That's what we really need, because that's what the disability is, initially. It's trying to manage it 24 hours a day, seven days a week.