Evidence of meeting #18 for National Defence in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was services.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Director, Mental Health Policy Directorate, Veterans Affairs Canada
No, these are primarily veterans who live outside of Canada.
Director, Mental Health Policy Directorate, Veterans Affairs Canada
For the most part, those tend to be people who live in Europe, and in particular, in the United Kingdom.
Bloc
Claude Bachand Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
All right.
Here's my million dollar question. I asked it when the committee was dealing with veterans business and that of national defence. You are all veterans. According to one school of thought at the time, the Department of National Defence wasn't doing enough prevention. There are two things. Even the provincial governments, when they provide their health services, tend to focus on the curative aspect, but not enough on prevention. They wonder what has to be done to cure people.
I don't want to start an interdepartmental war, but, according to that school of thought, the Department of National Defence didn't focus enough on providing training that would alert soldiers to psychological conditions such as those we've been talking about from the outset. In other words, the Department of National Defence sent people to the front on the basis that, if things went poorly and those people were released by the armed forces, the Department of Veterans Affairs would take care of them. Does that school of thought still exist? Sometimes don't you get the impression that National Defence creates a problem and that you are subsequently the ones forced to solve it?
Perhaps we should sit in camera to hear that answer, Mr. Chairman.
I'm joking now.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
I know you are.
Go ahead. Answer if you can or if you wish to. That's a statement.
Director, Mental Health Policy Directorate, Veterans Affairs Canada
I won't answer the question directly. I will say that I think the key to successful health for everyone in the military and as they become released and become veterans is to have resilience, not just physically, but mentally. I think that in this area, and I suppose it includes all of us, we need to become more resilient in both dimensions of our lives.
There's a lot of emphasis, as we all know, on physical resilience in the military. You need to be fit physically. I would hope that we reach a day when there will be as much emphasis on being mentally resilient as you enter the military, as you serve in the military, and as you leave the military.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
Thank you very much. We enjoyed your time here in committee.
Just before we go, keep in mind that when we come back we'll be having a future business meeting, so think about where you want to travel, which bases you want to go to, and who you want to visit so we can proceed.
Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.