Mr. Daigle is correct, and we welcome those kinds of external reviews;everything is relative, however, and we need to continue improving. I mentioned the obstacles to our ability to achieve the number of mental health professionals that we need. We're working hard. We have an aggressive recruiting plan to deal with that. We have additional commitments to try to accelerate the staffing process for those individuals who we need to fill the gaps in mental health staffing.
Wait times, however, are far less than they were. In Petawawa, for example, in the last few months we've reduced the wait time to less than half of what it was previously, so it's now at about one month for a specialized Operational Trauma and Stress Support Centre assessment. For the general mental health assessment, we've reduced it by 30%. I don't think any civilian authority in Canada can meet those wait times. They're dramatically lower than pretty much anywhere else.
Nevertheless, our troops require additional focus because of the extreme sacrifices and threats and stresses they encounter, so they merit that kind of support, and nevertheless, we're always striving to do better.
We now have, for example, over 200 applicants to fill some of our public service positions to try to achieve the 447 target that we're aiming for. Once we do achieve that 447 target, we'll be reviewing at that time—based on a Canadian Community Health Survey coming next year, conducted by Statistics Canada in collaboration with us—whether even that number is sufficient.
There is a willingness to if necessary increase that number to whatever the requirement is to provide a good level of care, keeping in mind that primary care in this country and in most of the world provides much or most of mental health treatment. So it's critical that we get a specialized mental health assessment early on, but then, most of the ongoing care in some countries and in some models, like RESPECT-MIL in the U.S., is even primarily conducted by nurses.
When a wait time for care for a specialized mental health assessment takes time, people are not just left to their own devices. They continue to be followed by primary care physicians. Their prioritization on the wait list can be changed immediately and at any time if there is an acute urgent case they'll be seen immediately.