Absolutely. In our organization, our research is very client focused, in such a way that every initiative produces recommendations that are directly communicated to our clients. When I say “clients”, these are the people in the Department of National Defence responsible for the policies, services, and programs.
For example, our very first study of ill and injured people conducted in 2012 with the participants in RTW programs under the JPSU umbrella gave us the first indication of the role of the spouses and the families in the recovery and rehabilitation of these ill and injured members. That initiated many discussions and definitely informed the decision-making, which ultimately led to opening MFRCs for these types of families.
We have many examples to show how our research informs the decision-making and influences the policies and programs.