I'll be brief. I'd like to suggest three things.
Number one, I think VAC has to go out of its way to recognize veterans with mental health concerns related to operations, to service, to recognize them as heroes.
Secondly, and somewhat related to this I think—and I can say this because I'm not a VAC employee—in regard to staff training, this is the new veteran we're dealing with. It's no longer the Korean and World War II veterans, by and large, who tend to be pleasant in the office. People with mental health concerns are not always pleasant, but they are our customers. They are the people we serve. We need, right from the receptionist, who's incredibly important, to give recognition to these people, not to treat them as security threats who we talk to from behind laminated glass plates. I realize there's a balance between security and recognition, and I've been to many VAC offices and the staff by and large are great, but often you walk in and you feel like you're a threat to them, because there's this glass thing and no eye contact. “What do you want?” is the message you get. When you're already prickly, I think that recognition, that the reason I'm here is that you are the person I serve, has to be the first message, not that you could be a threat to us. I realize this is a very delicate issue.
I think the third thing, which my colleagues have been saying, is to continue to support OSISS. I'm not a direct employee of OSISS. I have a job whether OSISS exists or not. But it is a great thing, and I hope VAC will continue to support it.
Those are my suggestions. I think it's a multi-faceted problem. There's no simple solution to the stigma problem.