Any time you operate a specialized assessment program, you're at risk of duplicating a lot of the assessment process, which is kind of like opening the wound of the trauma. They have already likely been working with people in the community or have gone through talking about their issues, especially in the guise of a mental health program. It's part of the process that needs to happen in order for our clinicians to make their recommendations out of the assessment.
It's important that the clinicians who are undertaking these specialty assessments have specialized training to be conscious of those facts and of the experiences necessary to be empathetic in that instance.
A seamless referral process can be helpful for the journey of the veteran as well, where you try to limit the burden of paperwork and bureaucracy and really just get them timely care as soon as possible. As you've heard from the other panellists, the burden and complexity of a program can weigh heavily on a veteran or patient. Any way a program can eliminate that as much as possible is super important to get them to care that's effective.