As I said, I think the stigma has been reduced significantly. I know the military has taken a leadership role in trying to reduce stigma in general in Canadian society. A lot of that credit can be given to the senior leadership. General Hillier, General Natynczyk, and the commanders of the army, navy, and air force, and so on have done a tremendous job in that regard.
In terms of resilience, the answer is that nobody knows. No one knows whether you can actually instill resilience. We think intuitively that should be the case, but there is no research that says giving people resilience is going to actually help them in any way. Again, that's where the CIMVHR, the research, is really required to make sure we are in fact doing the right thing.
Let me again address one issue. I think in my mind that you as a committee may potentially aggravate that stigma. That is tragic, as people continue to suffer from severe consequences of PTSD. The fact they are continuing to suffer is not necessarily an indication that there's a failure in the system.
Even in the best hospitals in Canada there are people still dying of cancer and dying of heart disease. That does not mean those hospitals are incompetent. That is the best technology.
Regrettably, there will be people who will not get better from PTSD. Based upon our knowledge now, one-third of the people who are diagnosed with PTSD will never get better. No matter how good we provide the best technology, the best evidence, and the best resources we have today, they will not get fundamentally better. One-third will completely recover. The other third will have relapses, but they will be okay. They are not going to be perfect, but they will carry on. There's a third of the people who are diagnosed who are not going to get better. They can be here with tragic stories, and they are real, but that does not mean the system has failed them.