National Defence committee  I would just mention that we have recognized for a long time that there's a difference in social support, because they are taken away from the unit and the troops they are deployed with, so there are fewer supports in their home units when they get back to their home towns. So th

National Defence committee  I'm not aware of anything related to an inordinately high rate of drug use. You're speaking of in-theatre use?

National Defence committee  I'll just quickly mention that we have weekly reports of certain types of clinical visits, and that ives us a good idea of what kinds of trends are taking place and where the demands are. There are multiple daily contacts by the staff to the staff in the Role 3 and the health se

National Defence committee  Physician assistants at forward operating bases, or other medical people--including medical officers or medical technicians--have training and can identify individuals who are having problems. Individuals can also approach a chaplain, if there is one, or their chain of command. T

National Defence committee  I don't know the answer to that question. People have had to be extracted in the middle of a...but that's something--

National Defence committee  I would have to defer to others. It's a Veterans Affairs issue, in some ways, as far as entitlement--

National Defence committee  Is entitlement for a pension what you were referring to?

National Defence committee  You mentioned 40% for loss of limb pension.

National Defence committee  Those kinds of things, such as benefits, some elements within DND, are under the purview of elements of the chief of military personnel outside the health services completely, and other elements are not operations. I can say, however, that all reservists--because we know it's ha

National Defence committee  When operations are planned, we always make sure that we have a way to evacuate patients. This is always factored in by the chain of command. At the moment, the Americans provide the service, but everything is directed by the medical team at NATO regional headquarters. They dete

National Defence committee  Yes, and not just there. There are medical personnel in most patrols up to a certain level of deployment. Even our medical technicians are trained to identify mental health problems to a certain extent.

National Defence committee  The assessment of the severity of the wound and the steps to be taken, knowing whether the person can be treated on site or whether he should be transferred to a higher level of care, those decisions are always made by the medical personnel.

National Defence committee  Those are areas that are outside my lane, but I can answer generally. Far greater detail on them can be provided to you. Because it's such an important area, we have a specific deployment health section whose only purpose for existence is to do a long-term follow-up and evaluatio

National Defence committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today with General Gauthier. I'm the director of health services operations in the Canadian Forces health services group. In addition to providing medical advice to the strateg