Thank you both for appearing and for your perspective and for your work and the work of the people you represent.
Certainly this study has been helpful in getting viewpoints from a cross-section of people, both from a research standpoint and also from an operational standpoint. When we talk about first responders, we're really talking about the unique nature of these roles, uniformed service leading to operational stress, and about how we can reduce that stress and share information.
I'm going to ask a couple of questions. The first is a difficult one. It builds a bit on my colleague Ms. Damoff's information about data tracking. Part of the challenge I feel we face, and I saw this at Veterans Affairs, is that if there is a suicide related to someone who serves or did serve, privacy and respect obviously surround it, but because of the uniformed service component, there is almost a “bright line” default position that it was because of an operational stress injury. In some cases it's not, but in some cases it is.
How do you feel we should report this in a way that pays respect to family members and to the person who was lost, but how can we make progress? I feel sometimes, and I've said this to folks within the veterans community, that if we don't have an informed dialogue on this it will be hard, because I think the public, who are finally aware of what post-traumatic operational stress is—and we're breaking down stigma.... The next step is to have that informed discussion to say that people who put on a fire service uniform or a military uniform are a cross-section of Canadians. They will also have mental health issues unrelated to operations. They will also have financial, marital—a whole range of stresses that can also contribute.
Do you have any suggestions on this? We want to get help for those who are vulnerable, first off, because suicide is the wrong option. We want people to know there is support out there—peer-based and what have you. Do you have any thoughts on how we could best report and discuss this in a way that helps people and explains to the public that first responders are a cross-section of Canadians?