We're structured as teams—that's key—and not just chaplain teams that are multi-confessional, multi-faith ecumenical teams, but interdisciplinary teams. We work hand in hand with the chain of command, which has the responsibility to care for our men and women in uniform, and all aspects of that care, including their spiritual well-being. We're a primary resource for assisting commanders to do that. We work alongside the medical care professionals, the family resource centres, etc. There is a thorough team approach to how chaplain services are structured at the tactical level on our bases and in deployed settings.
You touch on a really significant issue. Obviously, when chaplains prepare and deploy into theatre with our troops, there's a focus on the unique aspects of that deployed ministry we train them for, equip them for, and support them in.
Another whole side of this equation stays on the home front, and those are the families who worry day and night. Every time there's a story on the news or a death or an injury in theatre, that happens to every one of those families, in a sense. They're all caught up in that. I've often felt that, as challenging as the work is for the chaplains who are deployed in theatre, those who are accompanying the families and supporting them on the home front are sometimes even more challenged.
You are absolutely right that chaplains have an integral role to play in one of the most awful parts of this occupation, and that's joining an officer to go to the door, to the home of a family who has lost a son or daughter, husband or wife. To be with the notification officer at that point, as well as with the family, as we begin to deal with the terrible grief and pain and loss is sacred work, demanding work. We wish we didn't ever have to do it, but we know that our presence there can make a difference, and we seek to do that well.