Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. My suggestion, just thinking off the top of my head, because I haven't thought about this before, is that maybe when someone contacts them is to send an automatic.... Every time you phone them, you get the response, “Would you like to take part in a little survey?”

Veterans Affairs committee  From my personal experience, part of it is that I had to isolate myself. I could not take part in any social events in the forces, because one thing the forces like to do—at least in the past—is that most social events involve drinking, so I could not lose that kind of control in such a way that it was acceptable to lose that kind of control.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, it is now fixed, but it took a while to get it right. The problem, of course, is that every letter they send out to your doctor to get them to fill in something needs to match the name that's on your medical file. That's the issue.

Veterans Affairs committee  The biggest thing is to assign caseworkers. This having to call in and never knowing whom you'll get.... I went through the same thing with my dad. Because he had dementia, I had to be his advocate, and it was exactly the same thing: Each time, we have to get a new person. Not having a caseworker means that you have to go back over and over and tell them the same thing.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. Not having been discharged yet, of course, I don't really know for sure. I have talked to other people who have been discharged. In the last few years, I could see that I was going to be released. I knew that my medical condition was leading me that way, in that I would no longer meet universality of service.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. I am Sergeant Nina Usherwood. I am speaking to you from the unceded territory of the K’ómoks and Pentlatch first nation. I come from a military family. My dad, mom and sister have all served. I joined in 1979, and I am still serving 42 years later. Growing up, my parents knew I was dressing in my sister's clothes.