Most of our veterans, our clients, have post-traumatic stress disorder, one of the symptoms of which is anger. We have heard some comments about veterans. It is important to understand that people diagnosed with depression are often going to be haunted by the past whereas people with anxiety will be haunted by the future. Our role is to bring people back into the present. We don’t really dwell too much on comments they may make.
We also see that, for some veterans, returning to civilian life is difficult. Simply getting things done, like going to an appointment for a blood test or to see a doctor, can be very difficult and cause a lot of anxiety. For some, simply picking up the telephone and making a call disorients them. They often need the help of a professional in our organization just in order for them to do that. So you can imagine that, for a veteran who has to call Veterans Affairs Canada, starting all those steps and filling in all those documents for various procedures can be a major source of anxiety.