What we're hearing from military families—and we do have a significant military veteran family initiative under way—is that many of them are reluctant to access services delivered by DND or VAC because they don't want to get labelled or, as somebody described it, lost in the vortex. They'll try to avoid it. Sometimes, therefore, they'll end up inadvertently disqualifying themselves from getting it.
Family members go externally to family physicians, to community services, to all kinds of service supports, and there is no awareness or understanding of the military. Sometimes you'll get contradictory information between one spouse and the other, with one who's gone into VAC. That can be really challenging. Family members don't have access to the same kinds of information or supports that the military member has. That can sometimes cause confusion.
Just to pick up on what Mark was saying, families have shared with us that when you are identified as ill or injured or medically released, everybody is treated the same. Yet there is nothing the same about any two injuries or any two illnesses. Some are episodic. Some are long term and get better over time. Some are permanent and will be the same way all the time as Mark described. Some are chronic; they're just there and will be there forever. Some are progressive and will get worse over time.
So the need to provide evidence as to your medical condition varies depending on how you're ill or injured. We just don't have really good mechanisms yet to distinguish. It's just sort of one lump category.