Thank you for that. That's clarified a bit for me.
The next thing that I really want to talk about is in the context of the previous question as well. I think the testimony alone of all the women tells us that there is a pretty significant need to address these issues. Again, the word they used repeatedly was “invisible”. I think that's one of the hardest parts about addressing these issues. It's not that there's a conscious effort to ignore people; it's that the unconscious effort is to ignore. That leaves people invisible.
In that context, one thing I've heard very clearly and repeatedly from veterans is that they often feel retraumatized by accessing services. To be quite frank and honest in this room, I've been forwarded letters where I can tell, by the way they're written, that the people writing these letters are not themselves trained in trauma-informed practices. That means they can say the same thing, but the way they say it matters.
With regard to developing services for veterans, is there any exploration of really educating not just caseworkers but everybody in the roles about what is a trauma-informed practice and how to work with people who are traumatized?
I want to give another example of context. We had one veteran we worked with who had been told by VAC that he couldn't call them anymore because he yelled too much. I'm sure it was disrespectful. I'm sure he did yell too much. But this is supposed to be the place veterans go to get help. It doesn't make sense to me that there's a veteran that you say no to. It seems to me to make sense that you make sure, when you have a veteran who's expressing these...that there are more trauma-informed practices to support the veteran and not let go of the veteran.
What is actually being done around this? Is anything being done?