One of the areas that's recognized is the lack of research, particularly on mental health issues. There is no national research institute to prioritize and follow the research and define the programs that are needed. A key gap is gender and the impact of operational deployment on women in the Canadian Forces. There's been very little research done on that.
We have attended two recent research seminars sponsored by academic institutions, both international and national, and they've raised gender differences in some of the research. It's very limited. One of the papers, which was done by Ryerson, indicates that for women on deployed operations, there's a 2.2% increased risk of development of PTSD as opposed to men, but that's based on information from back in 2002. We've now had women deployed in Afghanistan and in other operational deployments for over 10 years, and there's no research in that area.
It's important to do this type of research to ensure that the unique needs of women are being met. Are the pre- and post-deployment screening processes adapted to meet the gender requirements? Are there adequate resources available to them when they come home?