Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Lieutenant-General, Captain, Doctor, thank you very much for being here. You folks represent the great work that is being done to support our veterans. At the same time, while veterans may be in contact with you and the organizations that you work with, they are often out there seeking service from traditional homeless shelters, for example.
Dr. Forchuk, you talked about those traditional homeless shelters as being too unstructured, and you also pointed out an absence of research on indigenous homeless veterans, save one study that has been done. To me, this speaks to the need for more focused, culturally relevant programs and services to support veterans. It sounds to me that there is a dominant culture out there in the traditional services that is not meeting the needs of veterans.
Lieutenant-General Beare, you pointed out how the language that is used during an intake, for example, “Are you a veteran?” versus, “Have you served?” can be very important when making sure that veterans receive the services they are entitled to.
With this situation, what do you believe is necessary? How do we disrupt that dominant culture? Is there a lack of training on the ground for these traditional service providers? How can government support those efforts to make a difference?