National Defence committee  I wouldn't say that we're company docs; we're occupational medicine specialists. Our business is to put them in harm's way, so we're trying to make sure we don't exacerbate that. I like to call us occupational specialists.

National Defence committee  It is a good history.

National Defence committee  I would just echo that. What I found amazing was how responsive the system was to body armour improvements. The turnaround time to enact an improvement was amazing. Again, it was collecting the data, analyzing the data, making a recommendation, and then trialing it--all evidence-

National Defence committee  But we react whatever way they come in. It's brought to our attention by spouses, by co-workers. Any time there's an alcohol-related incident, the MPs will inform us. We rely on a lot of sources, not just self-referral. The screening is one. Every second year they have a questio

National Defence committee  There is a lot of research going on, on go/no go pills, mild amphetamines, caffeine replacement, and caffeine gum. There is a lot of research, primarily out of DRDC Toronto.

National Defence committee  We participate in a lot of NATO standing committees, and there's a free exchange of research, so we freely share our research and the other NATO countries reciprocate.

National Defence committee  I'll add one little bit about nutrition. I know there's a movement afoot now--this is not necessarily under the auspices of mental health, but under fitness--to get a dietician who's at a certain level, maybe even at a master's level, to act as a consultant when selecting the die

National Defence committee  I can only speak of Stadacona. Almost every base now has a quality improvement person, and one of the things they do look at is wait times. I know the Canadian Forces Health Services Centre Atlantic, or the Stadacona clinic, in Halifax, do publish a wait time, and they compare

National Defence committee  It is graphic. It's all bar graphs.

National Defence committee  To that end, as an interim solution, we routinely do patient surveys and clinician surveys to establish their percentage of satisfaction. We'll pick a day, and everybody that comes into the hospital or clinic on that day gets a survey. The quality improvement personnel then tabul

National Defence committee  We all have Blue Cross cards. That gives you a 1-800 number to access care after hours, and it is a nurse you talk to. That person will give you some advice on where you should go, if you describe your symptoms somewhat. The other thing we have is CFMAP, which is the Canadian F

National Defence committee  And OSISS does the same thing. If you get a counsellor, often those counsellors make themselves available, but you have to have declared yourself to OSISS. I just read a CANFORGEN from Hillier, and they were talking about having a special advisor to the CMP on OSI issues that ar

National Defence committee  Inside the wire and outside the wire, they get the exact same decompression. There is no differentiation. They get the exact same debriefings and they're treated exactly the same. Now, you make a good point about the time zones, and there is ongoing research to see the validity

National Defence committee  But in the surveys on decompression, the majority of people said they felt it was of benefit. Major West could probably comment, because she would have gone through it herself.

National Defence committee  I can talk to you about sleep deprivation, because DRDC Toronto has an ongoing research project to assess sleep deprivation. They used a software package called SPSS. They can model the amount of sleep deprivation and relate it to cognitive functioning. They did a study on long