One thing I found really startling was a lot of the testimony that we heard about a lack of awareness or acceptance within Veterans Affairs around the Gulf War syndrome. In fact, just a few days ago, we had Mr. Bruyea and Ms. Richard here with many stacks of applications and appeals. The paperwork was quite daunting.
My concern is that veterans who served us during that time are having to prove Gulf War syndrome repeatedly and are having to go through an appeal process that delays and delays. Of course, like any community that served together, they talk to one another. We see this again and again with veterans. It defeats not only the people facing the challenge but also the people who served before they even put their foot in the front door.
I'm just wondering if there is any work that's being done to address this issue, so that when people come forward with these types of serious health issues that are very well documented and researched in other countries, but maybe not so much in Canada...to stop that.
It goes back to what I've spoken about before, which is that we really need trauma-informed services. People who have gone through serious trauma while they're serving this country need people on the other end of the phone who understand that trauma can impact people in a very particular way.
Having to prove your illness again and again and having to feel that you're fighting for your basic rights is not what we want to see. I'm just wondering if any work is happening around acknowledging these illnesses, to make the duty less burdensome on the veterans who serve us.