Veterans Affairs committee  It's a difficult question to answer as to who's ahead. There's a lot of research in this field. Certainly in terms of the volume or the amount of money spent, the U.S. is leading the pack in the research. They probably have more people diagnosed with PTSD as all the other countries together.

Veterans Affairs committee  They would have access—

Veterans Affairs committee  The answer is yes. But let me try to describe to you what happens at Perley. Perley is basically a nursing home. It's largely reserved for people who are suffering from dementia. Most of the patients there are 85 years old. There is a wing in Perley that is a community wing. It has 200 beds.

Veterans Affairs committee  As I mentioned earlier, we have the ability now to hire those individuals as we need them.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have been able to get them, yes. I'm not saying it's been an easy task. I think the challenge is still there. One of my concerns is that if we hire these resources, generally they come out of the community they're in. Once they become dedicated to us, they're not available to the community any longer.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  In terms of pre-deployment training, that's something DND is focusing on. We've been working with them, but they would be better equipped to answer your questions, I think.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm not really equipped to talk much about that, but you may want to get some colleagues from DND. We've had a presentation by Rakesh Jetley, I believe. He's a psychiatrist with DND who gives a very powerful presentation on what DND is doing to prepare troops and also what they're doing to increase their expertise in these psychiatric areas.

Veterans Affairs committee  I wouldn't say the headline is true. We've been trying to make sure that the Canadian Forces veterans get the best care possible. We also want to make sure we have the right kinds of tools to deal with their needs. There are a significant number of younger Canadian Forces veterans who haven't availed themselves of the provisions of the new wellness programs, and I would encourage them to do that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I can't comment specifically about Ms. Richard's case.

Veterans Affairs committee  We spend a significant amount of money researching this field. I'd have to say that probably the vast majority of the dollars the department spends is for the treatment of actual veterans. We do have a small research group headed up by very competent people, I believe. We've been able to access research that's being carried out in other jurisdictions as well, and we benefit significantly from that research.

Veterans Affairs committee  This is a good question and one that probably is more appropriately directed to our colleagues in National Defence. I have gone over some of the testimony, and I've noticed that some of the folks who have appeared before you have indicated, and they've indicated it to us as well, that there is pre-screening that goes on.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. I think because of the nature of what some of our troops are doing you wouldn't want to desensitize them too much, but certainly the evidence we've heard is that pre-deployment training is a very big asset in terms of getting the troops ready for what they might encounter when they are deployed.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have a provision for something we call medical travel. It allows us to pay for people to travel to medical appointments, and that would be available for someone who's receiving this sort of treatment, so we have a way of dealing with that.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think it's a good point, and it's not just in the area that you mentioned. My daughter is working on her PhD in occupational therapy. In some areas the rules are different for some parts of the country. This is not unusual, I think, in some medical professions, but it is from time to time a problem and needs to be dealt with.