Yes, thank you.
I was impacted by PTSD 20 years ago this summer. I was on the same mission that Senator Dallaire was on in Rwanda. It took me 18 years to figure out it wasn't all about me. The impact on my family, my wife, my children was profound. They are now all in care for themselves, finally.
The Veterans Charter needs to address that. It did not escape me that when I was going through therapy for PTSD, when it finally clicked in my head that my family had been affected and I started to open that dialogue with my family and they started to get help, their voices were heard for the first time by me and by the local medical community. As they finally felt safe to go forward and get help, my health increased incredibly, my health. When my relationships with my wife and kids started to improve, that saved my life, literally. I'm not being dramatic. It saved my life to have those relationships saved.
It would be incumbent on me and important for VAC, for the Veterans Charter, to address that particular issue in depth and very clearly that care for the family is as important as care for the veteran. We can no longer treat the veteran in isolation.