Okay. That's great.
We can also, as I was, be charged with the responsibility of getting aircraft onto the ramp for missions in Afghanistan, where the simple deciding factor was understanding if one aircraft had 15 more horsepower over another. This meant the success or failure of a mission, or life or death of a crew. As troops, we are trained to carry weapons and operate very complex equipment. We have extraordinary training and talent that are not comparable to anything in the civilian workplace.
In the course of our duties, most of us experienced trauma situations or heard about them. We even saw direct effects in combat, peacekeeping missions or other extreme situations. Some of these things exacted a very huge emotional or mental toll, causing significant operational stress injuries. We know that if we cannot get a grip on this, our lives will end abruptly within the military community.
Military and RCMP personnel develop identities that are beneficial during service. These identities allow us to disassociate for our own survival and to be effective in our jobs. We have to make very clear and defensible decisions that may undergo scrutiny for decades afterwards. Many people not in the service seem to forget that we are the ones you turn to for help, for national security, for emergency aid and for carrying out humanitarian aid in faraway lands. Sometimes we cannot just turn off our defensive identities.
During the transition to civilian life, veterans are faced with integrating into the civilian world. Those who can adapt will find a new identity and will be able to achieve very good well-being. However, for about one-third of veterans, this is not possible.
You, as a government, have already done the studies and gathered this information, so it's not like another study has to be done. The answers are already there, for the most part. For example, in a life after service survey from 2019, 39% of people reported difficulty adjusting to civilian life, medical releases were 49%, depression was 33% and not being employed in a civilian workforce was 43%. Compared to the 2016 life after service survey, there was a drastic increase in retirement, not working in civilian employment and chronic conditions such as PTSD. There is a much higher increase in participation in VAC programs. Compared to the non-military-related age and sex comparison, there are much higher chronic pain issues—which are twice as high—and PTSD is 26 times more likely. Depression is nearly twice as high, anxiety is three times as high and regular activity and limitations are three times more.
The struggle we have to deal with is being dismissed. Politicians, doctors and people on the other end of the phone at Veterans Affairs—nearly everyone we deal with—appear to be completely dismissing us, our level of professionalism, the training and how responsible we were in what we were charged with. Dismissal does a lot of harm for us. No longer being in service does not mean that we immediately forget our loyalty and our knowledge at the door, and then immediately forget who we were. Sanctuary trauma is real and is caused by the place that's supposed to be taking care of us, so the endeavour to save money and deny benefits actually causes more harm than good.
We, as veterans of the military and the RCMP, are tired of seeing our benefits decreased while we're being used for photo ops and being denigrated for asking for more than we can give. Let me remind you that many of us gave all. While we willingly stood on guard, we are later asked to just stand by.