Veterans Affairs committee  I'll go ahead first. We investigate each individual suicide to better understand what factors are at play, and we find that the majority of people do have mental illness or some mental distress. That is overlaid with what we call an acute trigger, so a stressor like a relationship issue, for example.

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly. We measure wait times at each of our clinics in the different parts of the mental health department. Just to add a little more precision to what General MacKay said, within our psychosocial services, the benchmark is two weeks. That is, again, for non-urgent, elective care.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll happily speak about that, just to set the record straight. I don't have the numbers with me, and it is true that some members posted to the JPSU do die by suicide. There are people who are not posted to the JPSU who die by suicide as well. I think we just need to keep that in mind and not assume that this is the reason behind it.

Veterans Affairs committee  If I could just jump in, I think it's very important to appreciate the limits of screening and the logistical implications that screening during a theatre of operations would bring. For this reason, we really provide a lot of training to leaders at different levels as they move through their career on how to identify people who are showing signs that they may need help, how to speak to those people, and what resources are available.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's correct.