National Defence committee  We set up our screening in such a way as to encourage you to report. We can't force you to report.

National Defence committee  As far as the mental health issues go, again bringing the spouse in is a really good check. Even then I can assure you that my husband was very well briefed before he showed up at the social worker's, and we didn't have a lot of issues. So a family that did have issues....

National Defence committee  They are extensively screened for many, many things, including their weapons preparedness.

National Defence committee  I'm lucky they actually let me have a weapon. A large portion of that is medical, including a psychosocial screening, where the spouse has to come in to the base social worker and sit down and say, “No, there really are no problems at home with my spouse deploying”.

National Defence committee  If you understand how physicians operate, you go to see your doctor for your medical--and you're a woman, so I know you actually will show up, as opposed to most of your colleagues here. You tell your doctor the issues that are important for you to put forward. Your doctor is sti

National Defence committee  For a number of reasons.

National Defence committee  I've just been there, dealing with many other nations in the Role 3 hospital. It's Canadian-led, but we have the Dutch and the Danes and the Americans. I can tell you that every single country has a different approach. The approaches range from four-month tours with no break to f

National Defence committee  There is also in the American system, of course. In Ottawa, of course, with us being such a large base, we actually have our own sleep labs still in the clinic. We don't know whether we're going to be able to keep that long term. But for civilians, if there's a concern that some

National Defence committee  We also have food services officers within the Canadian Forces. They're involved in continuous quality improvement of things like our IMPs, our hard rations. Of course, one problem is that no matter how palatable you think you've made the rations, there'll be some soldier who wou

National Defence committee  Lots and lots of salt, which you need in Afghanistan.

National Defence committee  Sir, I am essentially ground level at this point. As a base surgeon, I am responsible for ensuring primary care gets delivered to members in the Ottawa area. We are in the process of instituting throughout the system the Canadian Forces health information system, which will even

National Defence committee  Sorry, I missed that.

National Defence committee  But the MFRCs do offer some support. I don't think it's 24 hours in most cases, but they do offer some support, and that is definitely at arm's length from the military.

National Defence committee  Yes. The inside-the-wire/outside-the-wire dichotomy is an artificial one. You can be outside the wire and in a fairly safe environment for your entire time, and you can be inside the wire in a position where you are seeing and doing things that human beings were never meant to

National Defence committee  If I were giving a quick answer to your question as to whether or not Canadian soldiers are overmedicated, I'd say no, they're undermedicated. It is extremely difficult to get patients to accept SSRIs; it doesn't matter whether they're military or civilian. I don't know what th