Veterans Affairs committee  For recruitment there is screening, as people do go through a medical examination, and part of that is a history-taking where people are asked about their previous medical history, including mental health history. Yes, that does happen. Based on that, whether someone is screened in or out would often be on a case-by-case basis.

Veterans Affairs committee  When we look at the veteran population, it becomes complicated, because out of the 700,000 veterans in Canada—and I'm sure you know this—120,000 are clients of Veterans Affairs Canada. When we're talking about veterans, there are many people out there who have retired, and we know nothing about them.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a very good question. Thank you for that. Again, I'm a psychiatrist. I work in the mental health world. Certainly, from my perspective, from the time I started working for the Canadian Armed Forces, the big change has been our participation in Afghanistan. People coming back from those deployments have been suffering from trauma-related injuries and other mental health injuries.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's different. We have different issues.

Veterans Affairs committee  We have a very different system from that of the Canadian Forces, where we have a wraparound health care system. Everybody in the forces is taken care of by the Canadian Forces' health care system. That doesn't happen once somebody leaves. Once they retire, their health needs are taken care of by the provincial health authorities.

Veterans Affairs committee  Can I add something to that from the Veterans Affairs perspective? First, I want to introduce myself. Although I am not making a statement, I think you should have a little bit of a sense of my background. I've worked in the mental health field for over 30 years. In 2003 I started working for the Canadian military in Ottawa as a psychiatrist, and three years later I put on the uniform.