Quite clearly the military is not allowed to treat families, and therefore in theory they don't. However, in my past role in the military as stress injury adviser to the chief military personnel, I visited bases and came across some very innovative social workers who would see families unbeknownst to the system. If the base surgeon would ask questions, the social worker would say, “Well, I was seeing the military member and the family”—that's legal—“but the military member had gone to the washroom”. It's a very innovative way to deliver health care to families, and that shouldn't be. I think it's putting our health care professionals in a very.... They know that they need to provide treatment to the family, and they have to do it au noir, and I think that's just not called for, but by law, National Defence cannot deliver health care services to families.
That is why I think you will see literature in the military that indicates “for our members and their families”. Veterans Affairs will publish things indicating “for veterans and their families”. Families are always an afterthought. Of course something needs to come first or second, but strategically and philosophically, families have been forgotten.
I strongly believe, and there is literature to prove that I'm correct, that if you can finally deliver health care to the entire family system, it will pay back, because if the family system is allowed to implode, your military person will continue to implode and leave the military. If you manage to intervene at the family level, the benefits to the military member will come back in droves to the federal government.
It's simply a different approach, and there is a precedent. In Germany, military wives could go on the base and seek health care from the military. There were exceptions in history. I think it's time to look at those exceptions again to see if we can't change things.