I think one of the key things that is really important is that the research comes from the people. The other presenters talked about qualitative work with people. The ideas really come for me, as a clinician, from sitting with patients and families, and understanding what they're experiencing. From there we come up with an idea, and we write a proposal.
In our laboratory we utilize Statistics Canada collected datasets that are nationally representative. Basically, our laboratory goes in and gets approvals from Stats Canada to be able to anonymously analyze a large sample so that we can understand, in 8,000 service members, the risk of suicidal ideation and the factors. We get that approval, we do the analysis in Statistics Canada datasets, and then we publish them in journals.
I think The Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research is also very important. We present at conferences, learn from each other, develop networks, and try to engage patients and families in making sure that the questions are relevant to Canadians.