Veterans Affairs committee  That pilot project is only just starting, and it's only to track, digitize, and electronically transfer to Veterans Affairs all the medical records of people undergoing medical release in order to accelerate the process for them to adjudicate the benefit or whatever is required.

Veterans Affairs committee  May I comment on your question about mental health prevention efforts?

Veterans Affairs committee  And substance abuse. Back in the 1990s, things were not good. We've improved dramatically since then. We spend almost $40 million a year now just on mental health—$38 million and something a year—and we have spent over $100 million since 2006 in the increased health system budge

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for that question. I know Alice Aitken very well. She was a physiotherapist in the armed forces, in the medical service. She's currently an associate professor of rehabilitation at Queen's University and assists us in coordinating health research related to the military

Veterans Affairs committee  Thanks for the question. I'd first like to just address the suicide rate issue. Every single one of the suicides is a huge tragedy for us because they're our family members in uniform. It's a very different society, very tightly integrated, so every CF member is a brother and

Veterans Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, I am Colonel Jean-Robert Bernier, Deputy Surgeon General of the Canadian Forces. I am accompanied by Colonel Gerry Blais, the director of the Joint Personnel Support Unit and of Casualty Support Management. I am very happy to be here today and to

National Defence committee  It is about 380, and we are heading for 447.

National Defence committee  It will be as soon as we can. We've been trying for years to fill them all, but the process of finding people, in competition with the scarcity across the Canadian market for mental health professionals, is challenging. In the interim we have to augment services by using innovati

National Defence committee  Any organization that uses paper records has some difficulties in that regard, particularly with a mobile patient population that moves around all over the place, with delays in getting records delivered here and there or with having the complete medical record available, if, for

National Defence committee  The architecture is based on the Canada Health Infoway structure that's been accepted by all health jurisdictions in Canada as a basis. The problem is that we're further ahead than most jurisdictions, so most jurisdictions don't have the ability to tap into a medical record and t

National Defence committee  It varies from region to region. For example, in Petawawa, the average wait time for psychiatric care is about 6.5 weeks for all of Ontario, and it may be longer for Petawawa specifically. For the military personnel at the base, it's about 3.5 weeks or less.

National Defence committee  That's only part of the process. We start by screening and providing education right from enrolment. We do screenings at enrolment and perform periodic health assessments throughout the member's career. This extensive road to mental readiness is essential for pre-deployment resil

National Defence committee  The most valid comparison we can make, because of all the cultural and societal factors that impact suicide, is the United States. There are other countries that would make reasonable comparisons, but they don't investigate each suicide to the depth we do, and they don't maintain

National Defence committee  We can't comment on the provincial jurisdictions. However, with regard to the transfer of medical records, the records are available to the individuals themselves upon request, and they're proactively transferred any time a veteran applies to Veterans Affairs for any kind of supp

National Defence committee  Thank you. There are still some issues that we're addressing with respect to some of the health professions where we're still short. However, for the first time in history we're actually going to be slightly over strength for physicians, which historically has been our biggest r