Veterans Affairs committee  There are a couple of things. Suicide is tragic. It can often be prevented if the right services and supports are in place. Often, we hear that for people who have attempted suicide, one of the things that makes it seem impossible is the pressure that they feel their families a

Veterans Affairs committee  Certainly, moving is a common denominator, although that's changing as families are changing. Modern military families are no different from modern families in Canada who aren't in the military, so there's a greater likelihood that both spouses will be working, and the upheaval i

Veterans Affairs committee  I think there are two things, and I'm sure Russ has a lot of things to add. We are all biological human beings, so anything related to that is universal, and we can learn from other countries quite easily. The actual military experience, and even the language we use, are very d

Veterans Affairs committee  Peer-to-peer supports can be very successful. We've seen, both at a program level and at a service delivery level, peer-to-peer supports, both within veterans services and within mental health services. We're also evaluating those. For example, there has been a long-standing peer

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a way to leverage the knowledge and life experience. If we can find a way to capture that, both in peer to peer...but also by getting advisers to Veterans Affairs and other organizations that military and veteran families come in contact with.... One of the things that is a

Veterans Affairs committee  No, it's all families.

Veterans Affairs committee  Really, when you look at military veteran families, they're like a microcosm of all other families. Whatever they are going through, whether they have trouble finding child care or they have trouble finding housing, is an example of what other families are doing. The difference

Veterans Affairs committee  Again, the military experience is a microcosm of the rest of what Canadian families are experiencing, and we still have a long way to go with respect to sexual harassment in the workplace, sexual trauma in the workplace, sexual assault, and sexual abuse. We have a long way to go

Veterans Affairs committee  If they're relying on their family as a source of support, families don't have access to My VAC Account. They don't have their own account, so they can't help them answer the questions.

Veterans Affairs committee  We're hearing from families first and foremost who want to have the family as a designated client so that they can provide and receive information on behalf of themselves and the veteran, and so that they will also have an identifier that will identify them as a military veteran

Veterans Affairs committee  I think the challenge here is to try to balance between the “high touch” and the high tech. We have lots of high-tech solutions and strategies and information resources and forms online and those kinds of things. High touch is about the trust, the personal, and the respectful rel

Veterans Affairs committee  If you're interested in seeing boots on the ground, the program 16X9 did a wonderful documentary. They followed Debbie and her volunteers on the streets in Edmonton. It's a wonderful documentary. If you want to just get a sense of the power of the program, it's really a must-see.

Veterans Affairs committee  I think it comes back to this whole concept of collaboration. We have to get rid of the silos in order to get efficient allocation of financial resources but also human resources in order to get the results we're all aiming for, where it's no longer, “This is mine, and this is my

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say family-centred, individual-focused, and a blend of high touch and high tech.

Veterans Affairs committee  We can also learn from a lot of the research that's being done on helping people transition into retirement from non-military jobs. We know that those who are most successful start five to 10 years ahead of retirement. We can take that learning and apply it to this environment as