Veterans Affairs committee  We have case managers, but we also have veterans services agents in field operations who meet with our veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  We will start, absolutely. If you're talking about an IPSC, because we have staff there, we will hopefully meet with them before they even release. As CF members, they would have known the IPSC in many circumstances. In the case of a My VAC Account, we will have already initiated

Veterans Affairs committee  As you can see, it depends on the complexity and the needs of the veteran. The needs of some of our veterans who come in might be very targeted and straightforward, so we can address them immediately. We try to find VAC resources. In some circumstances there may be something not

Veterans Affairs committee  There is no wait time to be assigned to a case manager or to be working with a veterans service agent.

Veterans Affairs committee  Absolutely. Field operations are mandated to provide direct service delivery to our veterans. Any veteran who comes into one of our offices across the country—we have more than 130 IPSCs and satellite offices as well—is going to be meeting with one of our staff to screen, to see

Veterans Affairs committee  It's a few months. Before the releasing process, the nursing case managers of Veterans Affairs will discuss it with their DND counterparts, and it can start up to six months ahead of time. We know that in some circumstances CAF members know they are going to be released, but ma

Veterans Affairs committee  As you do know, the case managers at DND have nursing backgrounds. They're under a medical model. The primary concern of the case managers at VAC is reintegration into civilian life. There's a lot of communication before the releasing process. It is part of our enhanced transitio

Veterans Affairs committee  Currently we see that the mandate is different for the two case managers. As you know, the DND case managers are assigned to medically release members, and our VAC case managers are assigned to all veterans who have complex needs. DND addresses the medical issues during the trans

Veterans Affairs committee  If I may, I will answer that question, because case managers or veterans services officers work in the field of operations in the regions. For a few years now, and the positions posted attest to this, we have been recruiting case managers who have varied academic backgrounds, bu

Veterans Affairs committee  When we talked about the enhanced transition services that were put in place, that was one of the mechanisms for addressing some of the barriers. We talked a lot about the communication between the two departments, CAF and Veterans Affairs, to make sure the relevant information i

Veterans Affairs committee  Let me reassure you: when veterans come to our operations office, they get the service and support they need. In terms of homelessness, we have a lot of partnerships with the agencies on the ground, and we use resources in the community to make sure homeless people who are veter