Thank you, Chair.
This is a most interesting presentation.
I want to follow up on something Colonel Heber spoke about, but first of all, I will say that I'm extremely impressed by the level of change that has taken place, particularly at the senior level of the military. It is exemplified by the former CDS and the attempts to de-stigmatize mental health issues in the military and to have a regime that seeks to have a strong understanding of that throughout. I know that there are the efforts to talk about this as an injury as opposed to a mental illness, to treat it the same as an injury. These are all very positive.
I wonder if I could ask Dr. Heber, or you, Dr. Bernier, to talk about this aspect of whether you're dealing with treatment or with discipline. I want to bring it back to your comments about the soldier who was in a traumatic circumstance. He comes back, and the commanding officer or the leader says, “Okay, you're off for a couple of days, but I expect you to get back on deck”. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. It's helpful.
How is that different, then, from the “buck up, soldier” attitude? I know it is, but can you tell me how that distinction is made from the medical perspective, from the point of view of setting medical policy and dealing with that at the operational level?
You talked about the symptoms of PTSD. It's suggested that 90% of individuals diagnosed with PTSD have at least one psychiatric disorder, including drug abuse, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Sometimes there's a lot of overlay. How do you make that distinction? How do you do that from a medical perspective, as medical officers, and how do you see that operating at the pointy end, I guess?