National Defence committee  Exactly. It will be in the OTSS Centre.

National Defence committee  For the depleted uranium, yes, sir.

National Defence committee  That's an MOU between us and VAC.

National Defence committee  Sir, I can speak a little bit to that, because I used to work in occupational environmental health and was responsible for the deployable health hazard assessment teams. With respect to depleted uranium, we do have an agreement, a memorandum of understanding—which hasn't been terribly well used—whereby families' physicians can send away for uranium urine testing on individuals who believe they might have been exposed to depleted uranium, such as the individuals who served in the Balkans conflict, or they can be referred to an actual clinic to have that done.

National Defence committee  Occasionally we'll even extend termination leave just so we can get the person stable. My point earlier was that if somebody believes he has PTSD attributable to service, then as a veteran, in that particular instance, he can come back and be assessed. That was the caveat there.

National Defence committee  Sir, I don't know if this will help at all, but I've gotten some numbers from Halifax and they inform me that in terms of being assessed at the OTSSC, the Operational Trauma and Stress Support Centre there, it takes anywhere from one to eight weeks until somebody gets in and is fully assessed, which includes a battery of psychometric testing that is standardized across the CF.

National Defence committee  It occurs over the process of approximately six weeks, where the actual mental health professionals are in place in Cyprus. If you could divide the 2,500 folks or so—probably less than that, minus Camp Mirage—who are rotating through, it will give you some idea as to what sort of throughput they're dealing with.

National Defence committee  Three to six months.... There's not a lot of hard, fast proof of the ideal time, but it's some time after the initial honeymoon phase of redeployment back with the family, as well as post-deployment leave, which lasts anywhere from four to eight weeks typically. That's why three to six months is generally what you aim for, because that's before the regiments get into their regular training routines, etc.

National Defence committee  That is if they have a credible reason to believe that the person is at imminent risk of harming himself or others.

National Defence committee  Certainly with the Canadian Forces health services, we are occupational doctors, so we are patient advocates, but we have to keep in mind the patient's safety to himself as well as to others and the organization. There's a process by which we can give somebody medical employment limitations, whatever they require for their safety and for the safety of others.

National Defence committee  I would say that violent behaviour has presumably been manifested in some way. Simply having a diagnosis does not mean you're not answerable to society for your actions. At that point, oftentimes, either the military or the civilian disciplinary activity occurs. At that point, the onus is on the individual to prove why, or why not, they undertook their actions.

National Defence committee  Sir, I wish I could respond in French. Hopefully, one day.... The navy has the benefit of having two very large clinics, one on each coast. I've been in both clinics, and they're well populated with bilingual personnel. That's not to say everybody is bilingual, but certainly we have that capability, and I think within the CFHS what we strive to have is not for everybody necessarily to be bilingual, but to have that capability.

National Defence committee  There is a great deal of cooperation, sir, with VAC and DND currently. VAC has some OSI clinics--operational stress injury clinics--and DND has the operational trauma stress support centres. My understanding is that veterans, as well as members of the RCMP, can come to the OTSSCs for assessment, so there is cooperation even with the RCMP in that respect.

National Defence committee  Exactly. And that decreases inflammation and a host of other effects as well.

National Defence committee  There have been some investigational studies, I believe. I don't think it's an approved indication yet in the United States, though.