National Defence committee  I can't speak to individual situations, Mr. McGuire, but what we do through our program is make people aware by reaching out, just through awareness, that we have a part of the OSISS program that is for families who have lost a loved one, whether it be to sudden combat trauma or.

National Defence committee  Yes, they do serve. That's a big part of what they do, being that bridge. A lot of individuals, as we discussed earlier here today, have fallen through the cracks, are in basements. They're very isolated. When they connect with people like Cyndi and Shawn, Cyndi and Shawn act as

National Defence committee  I guess what I would add to that is that I think it's a good thing. I look at it in a positive light that we're seeing 235 soldiers coming out of Afghanistan. Going back to the first question of people falling through cracks and having a considerable delay from the time of the

National Defence committee  Our program is about that. It's about peer support. And yes, I think if you directed the question to both Cyndi and Shawn, they would both say “Yes, we fell through the cracks. We were very lonely. We were isolated. We did not know what to do and there was no one to help us.”

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, there is. For the peers who are actually hired, paid staff, there is intensive training in the very beginning, before they even go out and start to work.

Veterans Affairs committee  In order to be an official volunteer in the OSISS program, there are two important things that have to happen. You must be what we call medically screened. If you're in treatment, your therapist must say it's okay for you to even volunteer to do this kind of work. If we get that

Veterans Affairs committee  When we initially started the program, we thought that would be an issue, that there would be a gender difference. All of our coordinators in the beginning were of male gender. We knew there were many females out there who were also struggling with OSIs. We wondered if they would

Veterans Affairs committee  It's up to eight sessions. Maybe it's a stop-gap kind of program. It started off as being a crisis line service for individuals who are just at a loss, who don't know what to do. There's a 1-800 number they can call. They go into a main centre. The issue they're calling about is

Veterans Affairs committee  I would like to follow up on that. I can actually say the support of Veterans Affairs for the OSISS program is really helping to change the stigma that's out there, both in society as a whole and within individuals. There are 17 peer support coordinators working in the program,

Veterans Affairs committee  In response to your question on reservists, I just want to point out that, as I said earlier, everybody is welcomed into the OSISS program. We serve those in uniform and those out of uniform. We have a number of reservists who have come forward and accessed services under the OS

Veterans Affairs committee  We have not been directly involved with Health Canada. The circles there show the partnership for this particular program. In this particular program, there is no eligibility requirement to come forward and access the services of OSISS. When families and children come forward to

Veterans Affairs committee  Colonel Ethell is correct, yes, families have always been part of the OSISS program. Our mission statement says it's for CF members, veterans, and their families. They've never been excluded from our program. They've been there from the very beginning in terms of design. This pr

Veterans Affairs committee  I would add to that and just stress that we continuously, through this program, are heightening the awareness and educating people on what it's like to live with an operational stress injury, what it's like to the individuals themselves, and also the impact it has on their famili