We have pinpointed in our investigation of PTSD one crucial element, and that is, there are not enough psychologists, psychiatrists, and counsellors in Veterans Affairs in order to be able to service veterans. It's only going to get worse; it's not going to get better, and we've identified that.
Are there any witnesses the clerk may be able to find who would give us an idea about possible strategies we could recommend, for example, with respect to folks in colleges, for counsellors, or in universities, for psychologists and psychiatrists? We could recommend some strategy by hearing witnesses and hearing their proposals and some expertise that's outside of the boundaries of the.... I don't know how long it takes once a candidate is in these academic institutions before they're capable of taking part. I'm not aware of how long it takes to produce the expertise for a counsellor.
One of the things I don't believe we have on record as far as treating veterans with PTSD is exactly where the biggest vacuums are. Can we fill most of the void with counsellors, or do we actually need a vast array of highly trained psychiatrists for this? I think that's an invaluable thing we could do for VAC and get on record here.