Veterans Affairs committee  I think I would just like to carry on with some of the work that we just reported, so that we could continue to drill down to get the stories directly from the families and to understand more about that bidirectionality. I'm convinced that it's absolutely essential to the work of

Veterans Affairs committee  Families are recommending to us through our studies that we take a more upstream approach, first of all, to engage them in a conscious way in the military-to-civilian transition process and, second, to push that entry point further back along the trajectory. As the veteran is rel

Veterans Affairs committee  It's absolutely essential. I live in Halifax, and at CFB Halifax, the MFRC there was one of the pilot sites, one of seven, I believe. I'm fortunate to have colleagues and former students who work there, so I was kept apprised of how things were going. Because of the stigmatisati

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would concur.

Veterans Affairs committee  I don't have data that would conclusively answer that question. The work I do is not at the population level but more qualitative work, with small samples, but I do know from the literature that I don't think we have that knowledge at present. Unless my colleagues can weigh in he

Veterans Affairs committee  As I noted in my testimony, the families that participate in our studies are very keen to have what we're interpreting as military-centric programming, particularly during the more acute phases, to have someone who understands the context and the realities they've been dealing wi

Veterans Affairs committee  Not I.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely, it is a good thing. Anything to alleviate the stress and the pressure, particularly in the more acute phases of the transition out of military service to the civilian life.... I was not aware of that, but that's good news.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would totally agree. I know that in the military family support community there is a statement that I guess would serve as a contract as well. It pledges support to families, so I guess I would put a pitch in for any ongoing work around covenant-making to include the obligation

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I represent a group of researchers at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax who are conducting qualitative work emphasizing the impact of operational stress injuries, most notably PTSD, on veteran families. Some of us have been involved in th