I'm fortunate to be the chair of that military mental health panel through NATO. I can tell you that a lot of our countries face similar problems, of course, and not surprisingly. In fact, I think we're fairly far ahead of most of those countries, and so a lot of times we do some education and listening rather than following their lead.
We're speaking of women veterans, of course, and our focus is on the Canadian Armed Forces veterans upstream from the time they leave for post-military life. It's incumbent on us to provide the best care.
One of the things we've recently started to look at is suicides in our female population. Suicide obviously is a tragic final event for some with mental health and other issues. That's certainly something we're focusing on. It's a bit difficult in the Canadian Armed Forces, because the number of suicides is quite small, fortunately, and especially in our female population.
That said, we're trying to aggregate data from the last two decades to see if there are any patterns or any differences in our population versus the general Canadian population. With that, hopefully, we'll possibly be able to identify any unique factors or risks within the military that might put our population of women at higher risk.
That's just one example of what we do upstream from when a female member becomes a veteran. I know that we talked a bit about that transition, but it's critical that we also look at having that seamless transition for those suffering from medical issues, and for mental health in particular. Prior to release, we make sure they're taken care of in the civilian community.