National Defence committee  To start off, I'll ask Scott to address the medical aspects.

National Defence committee  Our current number is 452, based on the services that we provide, based on access by our military members to our health care providers and mental health care providers, yes. But as I mentioned, we can always do more, ma'am.

National Defence committee  We, as an institution of continuous learning to understand the complexities of mental illness and suicide, are continually assessing it through our own research ability and are looking to the future of new programs and new practices supporting families and our mentally ill. So, yes.

National Defence committee  Yes.

National Defence committee  Families are the lifeline for our members. Our spouses are the lifeline. They are here today. We have enhanced our program tremendously. At our military family resource centres across the country we have education programs for our children to help them understand what mental illness is all about.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Madam. We've come a long way in terms of our program called road to mental readiness. We have adopted mental resilience, mental illness coping, recognition of the symptoms throughout all of our professional development in the Canadian Forces, including a real focus on pre-deployment and post-deployment follow-up.

National Defence committee  I will look into that case specifically, and if we can talk afterwards I'll be sure to examine it, because no, that is not the intent of our program. That is not our outlook, and that is not the way we should be treating our men and women. Indeed, as I mentioned, it's very compassionate.

National Defence committee  First and foremost, for every suicide, we immediately launch, through our Surgeon General, the military professional/technical suicide investigation. That is launched within three days of an actual suicide. It's given a period of about a month in which to come back and identify what the circumstances were and if there were preventative measures.

National Defence committee  First and foremost, sir, I think the best answer I can give you is the response times in terms of access to mental health practitioners. I, as a military individual experiencing mental illness, can go into our Canadian Forces clinics across the country and get immediate care—immediate care.

National Defence committee  Thank you, ma'am, very much. It's good to see you again. The last time, we were in Afghanistan together. There is a natural propensity amongst all of us as human beings to think that someone presenting with mental illness has a problem; therefore, we have a different perception of individuals.

National Defence committee  Thank you, sir. I'll ask Scott to add a few comments. In terms of post-deployment follow-up that is being done, and I'll ask Scott to elaborate specifically on that, indeed from our studies during Afghanistan and our expectation of mental health for individuals presenting for mental illness, we know—we think we know—what that percentage will be over time.

National Defence committee  Universality of service is an exemption to the charter that ensures that all Canadian Forces members are employable, deployable, and physically fit in accordance with the standards of the Canadian Forces. Indeed, the Canadian Forces is meant to deploy—to Libya, to Afghanistan, and domestically in terms of crises and emergencies.

National Defence committee  I'll ask Scott and Rakesh to speak, but what I will say first is we have Canadian Forces members who are amputees. We have Canadian Forces members who are suffering from OSIs, operational stress injuries, and PTSD who do not breach universality of service, who continue to be warriors in the Canadian armed forces.

National Defence committee  Thank you very much, sir. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my fellow officers and I are very pleased to have the opportunity to talk to you about caring for our own programs—much that you've heard over your adjudications in the last while—and specifically, the care of our ill and injured Canadian armed forces personnel and their families.

National Defence committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. In brief, the Canadian Armed Forces have an individual training and education process for all our trades and our officer classifications. Our trades in particular, which are really the hands-on—our infanteers, our aircraft mechanics, our sailors aboard ship—have a very thorough and well-developed program that trains them in the specific skills and qualifications they need to perform the war-fighting capabilities of the Canadian Forces.