Veterans Affairs committee  There are about 30 mental health workers, including all the professions.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes. These are not 7,000 people taken from the general population. We might have enough resources in times of peace, when things are normal. But we have to adjust our human resources because of the mission in Afghanistan. The mission in Afghanistan has changed the situation. Pre-

Veterans Affairs committee  Indeed, there is no connection between the university and military worlds. Thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  What I am going to say is not based on research, but I believe that the fact that people are far away from their usual social networks probably means that they have less protection from post-traumatic stress. It is not easy to go through difficult situations on the job, but if yo

Veterans Affairs committee  The Resiliency Training Program that I talked about earlier also includes a peer support component. Even if military personnel are not fully aware of what they are experiencing, we try to train people within the units, ideally people of the same rank, to alert one another. We cal

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to Valcartier, that also raises an infrastructure problem because, even if we did have the staff, we would have to put them in the parking lot or on the roof at present. We do not have the required facilities.

Veterans Affairs committee  As public service employees, we have access to employee assistance programs which enable us to consult health professionals. With such a heavy mandate, we need teamwork in the real sense of the word. We have significant interdisciplinarity in our work. For instance, if a patient'

Veterans Affairs committee  It's because of the volume of clients. In the Canadian Forces, there are a fairly high number of consultations for post-traumatic stress. In the civilian environment, we do see cases of post-traumatic stress, but they're not related to military operations. The context is differen

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  I am not a researcher. It would have been interesting to have put this question to Stéphane Guay, for instance, who does research that is really specific to this issue. He no doubt does research in this field, I am convinced, but I cannot tell you what type, nor can I tell you wh

Veterans Affairs committee  But they use the clinical file we prepare at National Defence. Therefore, in determining pension amounts, they are using material prepared in relation to treatment contained in medical files. That movement is completely—

Veterans Affairs committee  For me too.

Veterans Affairs committee  There is also a link with knowledge of the military environment. The military is a world unto itself. By working in it, we end up understanding how it operates, but I don't know how long a civilian psychologist—and I am one—with no knowledge of military reality, who suddenly star

Veterans Affairs committee  I agree, Mr. Gaudet, but it's not up to me to say what's best. I'm telling you what we are asked to do. Could we do more? Yes, we probably could. However, what I have talked about here is what we are being asked to do in our directive.

Veterans Affairs committee  That would be an interesting approach. We would have family tournaments, most likely.