National Defence committee  Yes, I think that's a fair assessment.

National Defence committee  The military folks are on the same six-month rotation as most of the Canadian Forces are in that theatre. They will not be allowed or will not be encouraged to volunteer for at least a year after coming back. We try to space people out. In all probability, they won't be told they're going to go back—they won't be forced—for a couple of years.

National Defence committee  I'm not sure about the rapidly changing requirement. I think if you went back to 1944 with what we know today, you would be flooded with patients with PTSD. This gives me a bit of an opportunity to point out that there's a difference between having a diagnosis of PTSD and being completely disabled by that diagnosis.

National Defence committee  At the moment.

National Defence committee  Thanks. Rapid fire, and in English again, so I can speak more quickly, regarding 5% PTSD, about the same number have a significant depressive issue. For the largest number of people with mental health disorders coming back from a mission, it's hazardous drinking behaviour, which I think runs at about 17% in the figures we have.

National Defence committee  We have an imperfect number, as far as we know, and this is based largely on the first rotation that went into Kandahar, the guys who did the first full rotation. From the post-deployment screening figures, the best number we have for PTSD is between 5% and 6% of those.

National Defence committee  I believe that where we have been able to establish a clear link for mental health issues, or OSIs, the numbers are in there. Remember, we are still expecting to get, six or twelve months down the road.... Those numbers will be underreported for mental health issues, because it's something that comes up later.

National Defence committee  I have no confidence that all of them are in there.

National Defence committee  But they're not the people picked up six months later.

National Defence committee  Actually, in the last few years, we have done better than in the rest of my career. Our basic commitment, for somebody whom we sponsor through university to become a physician, is four years after they qualify. It used to be that at least 80% of those who came up to that point left.

National Defence committee  And they like the work too.

National Defence committee  They think it's valuable work.

National Defence committee  Those are the classic examples of the kinds of things that, down the road, may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.

National Defence committee  It can take a long time. We never know exactly when the symptoms will appear, or whether members have experienced the symptoms but have ignored them or repressed them for a while.

National Defence committee  Perhaps it's better to explain it in English--Une choc extrême, an extreme shock--I think it's intuitively obvious that if you were riding in the back of a LAV III and it blew up and killed the guy next to you, if you survived, then you have lived through a certain shock. If you were involved in a firefight and one of your best friends was killed, that's a shock.