Definitely, and as you know, we do it. If you're working for External Affairs, they'll book your family. When I went to France thirty years ago with my father, I had a medical. They do that. When we send families to the north, we assess all the children, because they're going to Iqaluit for the next three years.
The support definitely has to be done beforehand. We start that with the RCMP before you arrive, as I said. Sometimes we have problems with human rights, though. For example, you don't want us to see your wife to see how the situation will be when Peter comes back. But most of the time it's done on a voluntary basis, and about 90% participate.
It would be very interesting to inform the kids. As an occupational physician, I believe you cannot have too much information, if it's well done. You have to be transparent and advise them of what the risk is: your father's going to Afghanistan, and yes, there are some terrible casualties, but there's also the other side. It's a risk assessment.
These poor families are alone. They probably get their cheque, and if they go to see a psychologist, they have to fight, etc. I'm concerned about that. We need to help the member's family, because that's part of their life--more so if there was a death, and more so if the guy is sick and is not feeling well.
That's why there's the transition. That's why we have an aggressive employee assistance program that contacts the members once they're back. In fact, we see them a month after and three months after they get back, and we all have data on how they are. He won't call us, but we call him and say he needs to do a debriefing. The debriefing is not official, and I know there's a lot of controversy about that. It just asks him how he's doing, and we even speak to the family, because sometimes he doesn't know he's all upset. It's not evident.
So that's why we do the family assessments both before deployment and after deployment. Particularly in critical missions like Afghanistan, they should be assessed.