Thanks for the question.
The question is very timely. Just last Friday evening, Minister MacKay formally launched a Shoulder to Shoulder bereavement support program with members of the program--widows, families, fathers, and spouses of fallen members.
One of the key attributes of the Shoulder to Shoulder program is that it is designed to be an enduring commitment, not just something that will cease when a member leaves the Canadian Forces or when a member is deceased. This is an ongoing, enduring commitment. It involves social workers and the web-based peer consultation you spoke of.
There's a network of peer counsellors that we call the HOPE program--helping our peers through empathy. It's very successful for people who have had to go through this terrible experience and come out the other side. There are seven steps to the whole grieving process. When they come out the other side, some of them put their hands up and say they'd really like to help people after what they've gone through, so there's a reach-back peer assistance piece.
For the specific case you mentioned, where a spouse and children downstream have a desire or need to have some type of bereavement support, that's totally open to them. I will just cite that this Shoulder to Shoulder program is for any death--operational or due to illness or injury. It's really for bereavement for Canadian Forces surviving entities.