Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  No. For a disability award under the new charter we are using the same rules that we were using under the disability pension. The terms by which they become eligible for a disability award are the same. How we would assess level of disability is the same as well. There is an assessment instrument called the table of disabilities that provides guidance in terms of looking at functional capacity and how it impacts upon one's ability to do something.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have the capacity to offer rehabilitation services to families and spouses in their own right when the veteran himself can't participate in the rehabilitation. In that case they can partake in training and all the vocational components. There is also capacity for the spouses and children to participate in treatment when that's required to meet the goals of the rehabilitation program.

Veterans Affairs committee  I have to admit I'm not familiar with the stat of 11%, but....

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. The point that you raise in terms of outreach and communicating the programs and having them understood by our clients and their families is one we have done some work on but we need to do more. Jane, from the operational guidance perspective, can offer some particulars around what we're doing on the outreach piece, and maybe speak a little bit about case managers and how they link with families and make them aware of services.

Veterans Affairs committee  And just in terms of outreach generally, I think I stated that we do need to do more. I think that's clear. We are aware there are many who don't understand the benefits that are available, so we do have an outreach strategy that is looking at who we need to be speaking with. We do transition interviews.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair and committee members, my name is Brenda MacCormack and I'm the director of rehabilitations at Veterans Affairs Canada. It's my pleasure to appear before you again today with my colleagues: Janice Burke, the director of mental health; and Jane Hicks, the director of operational direction and guidance.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll start with the disability award. That is a payment that can be made to compensate someone for illness or injury, and I guess it would be types of injury that we see in the military. It's any amount. It's hard to say whether it's enough. But what happens is that they make an application for a disability award and the determination of level of disability is made by Veterans Affairs Canada based on objective medical evidence that's provided by medical practitioners who do examinations and record information such as range of motion, functional limitations, and x-ray reports.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't know. I don't know what capacity the Canadian Forces has.

Veterans Affairs committee  This gives me an opportunity to speak a little bit about the rehabilitation program. As Bernard mentioned, counselling and so forth are available, and there is no finite timeframe in terms of the rehabilitation program. The services are available for as long as they need them in terms of achieving certain goals.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely, and certainly we have seen an increased prevalence of that. We see a lot of addiction issues associated with mental health issues. There are a lot of musculoskeletal types of injuries involving a lot of chronic pain, and there are family issues associated with those.

Veterans Affairs committee  I certainly can't speak in detail, as that is not an area of expertise for me, but we do have a centralized centre of expertise in Ste. Anne's. It is centred around mental health and really sets best practices and then communicates those out. So there certainly has been, as part of the mental health strategy that Bernard referenced, a real conscious effort to build capacity in the various communities across this country, because we recognize that veterans and their families live first in their communities.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have the detailed expenditures. I think we've taken that away as an item, but generally speaking I would say yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  Just as a bit of background around the new Veterans Charter, back in the late nineties, early in the 2000 period, there was a recognition that the system that we had currently in place--the disability pension and associated treatment benefits--was sorely lacking in terms of what it was achieving.