Thank you, Joy.
Also, thank you for your question, because, as I mentioned in the opening remarks, about 60% to 70% of the people I treat today are veterans. About 25% of them are female. The remainder are male. In fact, just today I saw four veterans whom I treat and who are in the program.
You cannot separate the two. As I mentioned, 60% of veterans with chronic pain also have mental health issues, and 63% with mental health issues have chronic pain. It's really two sides of the same coin, so if you're just going to give them a physiotherapy clinic or treat the musculoskeletal issues, you will not get the success.
In fact, the research goes back to 2012, when the International Association for the Study of Pain looked at 43 countries around the world. Their conclusion was that the best model is a biopsychosocial model, with physicians, pharmacists, psychologists, psychiatrists and addiction experts in one facility.
I feel very blessed to be working at the DeGroote, where we have 12 different health professionals, including addiction experts, psychiatrists, psychologists and psychometrists. When a veteran comes into our program, they get all the resources in one place, and that's probably why our success has been published in peer-reviewed journals. We have the best success.
Interestingly enough, veterans do better than civilians in our program, partly because of what Hélène said: They're “mission first”. They're very committed. They're dedicated to things that will help them. That was the remark:from the four veterans I saw today: “You tell me what to do and I will do it, and, by the way, I am feeling better.”
In just treating the physical aspects without addressing the psychological issues, you will not succeed, and that's been our mantra for three years with Veterans Affairs Canada. You must send people to interdisciplinary care as opposed multidisciplinary care. In multidisciplinary care, they see different specialists in different locations without a holistic one-centre approach. That has been part of our recommendations.