I think the aim of the bill is really to increase the conversation about and awareness of PTSD in Canada. I really strongly support the bill.
I think education is really important in differentiating between what is normal and what is abnormal. One of the things I've learned is that if someone is exposed to a serious, traumatic event, such as seeing a suicide or the sudden death of a close loved one, and they're still suffering and not back to their normal self about one month after the traumatic event, that one month is an important time point. If they're still suffering, they probably need to look at getting treatment. We think it is important to really make treatment more available and user-friendly and that the treatment should come to the person rather than the person necessarily having to go to individual or group therapy.
We have developed what are called cognitive behaviour therapy classes with the idea of reducing waiting times for people waiting for CBT, because everybody has been in a class since they were four years old and people understand classes but they don't necessarily want to go into psychological treatment. That's one of the novel ways we have tried to reduce stigma and improve access.