In a nutshell, when somebody has augmented from the reserve force and has deployed with the regular force, when they return to Canada they get a brief post-deployment screening, and then they have to take their leave. They have a couple of days at the reserve unit, where they parade half-time and have to be seen, and then they have to use up their leave. There's their 30 days.
They're asked questions right off the bat about having any symptoms. They go through the screening tools, but as we know—it's pretty common knowledge—mental health issues, as you said, sometimes take months and sometimes years to manifest themselves.
Once you've finished your 30 days and the class C contract ends, you're back, ostensibly, to civilian life. You might go back to being a class A soldier where you're parading at the regiment once a week and training on a monthly basis, but for the rest of your life you're out there in the workforce trying to make a living and provide for your family, for yourself, etc. If the mental health issues begin to surface as a result of your service, it's really difficult, especially for reservists.
There are two issues: time and space. If you're from Flin Flon, Manitoba, all these wonderful centres we hear about are kind of far away, so getting access from there is one issue. Secondly, because you are now a class A soldier, you come in and you sign into the regiment and you work with them on your Friday night or your Thursday night, whatever your parade night is, and that's your military service. However, your problem now is that you're having mental health issues, you need to get treatment, and you need to get issues looked at, but you're still trying to provide for your family, hold down your civilian job, and do all the things that everybody else has to do, and yet you have this additional problem.
You're right. My parents taught me when I was a kid that if I broke something, I had to fix it. I think that as the Canadian Forces it's incumbent upon us, if we break something in this context, we need to address it. I've seen soldiers, especially those with physical health issues, and they get addressed within that 30-day period. Great, you have an injury, we're going to treat it, extend your contract, give you a place to hang your hat, and make sure you're still getting paid. We're going to treat you and get you all the way through to recovery. That works really well in that model.
With mental health issues, they may come up six or eight months later. Try to get them back onto a contract and have the system take care of them; it's near impossible. I know. I've tried.