The service that we provide is summed up in the six programs we have mentioned. The grey area is when Veterans Affairs Canada makes a request for a person who takes substances 20 times a day and poses a serious risk in terms of withdrawal. We have criteria that can exclude cases like that.
Ideally, for a person who takes substances more than 20 times, the withdrawal process should be done in hospital, but our health care system does not do prevention. It focuses mainly on healing. So people like that are not automatically hospitalized for withdrawal. The treatment period for them is longer. We cannot have them at the Maison La Vigile because their consumption is too great and there is a risk of major episodes like convulsions, delirium and even death.
At that stage, our suggestion to Veterans Affairs Canada—this is not ideal, but it is still a solution—is that the person should progressively reduce consumption for a few weeks until they reach 19 or fewer per day, after which they can be admitted to the Maison La Vigile, with a detox protocol and with specific medication to deal with the symptoms.
So that is one criterion under which a person cannot be admitted to the Maison La Vigile. Another is when there is a risk of suicide, homicide, or excessive violence, as was the case recently when a very psychologically unstable person with aggressive tendencies communicated with our organization in order to be admitted. It was impossible for us to do so.
So there is a grey area in which the Maison La Vigile cannot accept a veteran. A hospital may evaluate him but will not automatically admit him. So he leaves hospital after a few hours without really feeling better. Sometimes, people like that need closer supervision, but they end up at home very quickly, without having received the psychological assistance they need.