National Defence committee  Madam Chair, again, there were some excellent points made there. I think the military has come a long way in recognizing that this is an important component of what we do when we do investigations of suicide and/or when we're looking at supporting, say, the colleagues or the tea

National Defence committee  As I mentioned already, I think one of the ways we should not measure effectiveness is by looking at the fluctuations in our numbers from year to year. I think perhaps over many years we might be able to see trends, but certainly not year to year. In terms of the suicide prevent

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, I think a number of excellent points were made in that question. The first was your allusion to whether there are still barriers to care that are perhaps different from the one that often seems to come to the top of the list: stigma. I think unquestionably our system

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, we're not presuming injury, because I think there is still enough variety in the experience that this would be a step too far. To be honest, I haven't reviewed the literature on that. We screen people, and I know time is short here, but I think what is key is that wh

National Defence committee  I think you are absolutely right about the importance of people having somewhere to turn when things are dark for them, in addition to this array of services that we have, as I keep alluding to—but of course they don't all speak to every single person. However, with respect to y

National Defence committee  Yes, sir. It's 24-7, bilingual at all times, and yes, it's a number that we publicize as broadly and as widely as we possibly can. Members and their families can use it. There's also a family information line, and it too is 24-7 and bilingual, and includes a crisis line component

National Defence committee  It's difficult for me to describe our supports because there really are so many that it's outside this medium to be able to explain them all. I will maybe address part of your question, at least, with respect to the concerns about COVID-19 and the potential increased demands and

National Defence committee  Sorry.

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, that is really a super question, because it allows me to talk about something that I feel is really important. The first thing, I'm afraid, is that I am not going to share the 2020 numbers with you today. Those numbers will absolutely be made public at the end of t

National Defence committee  Go ahead.

National Defence committee  What I can tell you here is that I have never heard a patient or a health care provider in our system express concerns about paragraph 98(c) or any language like it. My perception from my experience and the teams I work with, the patients I've worked with, is that I have not he

National Defence committee  Indeed, we know there are differences between how women and men present with mental illness, exactly as was described in the question, but our model of treating our members is very much an individual model. We tailor the treatment to the individuals, to their illness, to their wa

National Defence committee  Yes, indeed, we take into account those kinds of factors, but all of the factors, right? Individuals are much more than just their gender or sex, of course. That's what I was trying to illustrate about an individual patient approach. It's everything about those individuals, their

National Defence committee  Madam Chair, I'd like to pass that question to Lieutenant Colonel Suzanne Bailey, our social work expert, to discuss some of those impacts on our members.

National Defence committee  That also is a great question. Because we have this extremely important responsibility to the member to keep things confidential and private, it again is that razor edge of making sure we are looking after the member—the first priority is to make sure the member is well, or is as