Thank you.
That's a tough question.
I actually do agree with you. I never actually read it, but just listening to you talk about it, I can picture the children's behaviour. Let me give you a very simple and concrete example. In our bedroom, where my husband sleeps, there's a club with nails in it and a baseball bat because he never knows whether we're going to be attacked. He doesn't sleep if the doors aren't locked and it becomes an obsession. He has to check, and he sends the children to go and check.
The children end up developing this fear of the outside world. And when the day comes and he decides to get rid of this plank of wood with nails in it—because he is working on this at the Ste. Anne's Centre—I'll be honest with you, I wonder if I'll be the one who becomes afraid because there's no longer a nail-studded club in my bedroom. It's strange, but that's the way it is. So, it's true, that kind of state of mind rubs off on children. Now, if our 21-year-old daughter went and sought out help and said that her father had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, I think she would get access to resources, which actually do exist, but which may need fine-tuning and improving, and she would get help getting through this. I honestly believe that the existing resources could very well be part of therapy provided by social workers, psychologists, and so on.
On the other hand, for kids that still live at home, it's different because they're younger. Our children grew up in this environment. The older ones have left home and have grown up a bit outside mum and dad's cocoon. It is my belief that if the eldest amongst them gave a cry for help, that the system we have nowadays would be there for him and help him get through it.
As far as the youngest are concerned, they are still at home and still live with someone who has post-traumatic stress syndrome. They have to deal with this dysfunction on a daily basis, so there does indeed need to be more resources for them. I know that Ste. Anne's Centre is going to great lengths to set up workshops and training. The social workers are readily available, but they have busy schedules, considerable workloads, and lack resources. But you know even better than I do what things are like.
But these children really do need to get access to help when they need it. There should at least be some sort of follow-up. As far as the older children are concerned, I think that the system works quite well and that the resources are more or less available to them.