Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. As a physician who worked in the armed forces for 30 years, I haven't seen that kind of situation, but that doesn't mean that the situation doesn't exist. Some women asked for breast reductions, but it wasn't because of poorly adapted equipment. It was for other reasons, such as back pain, and so on.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say that it's not just in terms of medically released members. Every releasing service member will get a screening that evaluates their preparedness for transition and makes sure everything is in place before they release. It's also about encouraging them to open a My VAC account through which they can receive a lot of information.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'm going to give the caveat that I'm not an expert in the bureau of pensions advocates. My understanding is that, if someone put a claim that was denied and they sought the help of the Bureau of Pensions Advocates to go and represent in front of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board, those costs are covered by BPA as well as seeking the independent medical examination.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. There are different channels. There isn't just one channel to bring issues to light with us. I mentioned my name because I was sincere in saying that people can communicate with me. Some people do communicate with me. Of course, we have our national 1-800 line, where people can raise issues.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. We don't do quality assurance for Atlas. Our relationship with Atlas is that they are funded by us through a contribution agreement. They are a not-for-profit, independent organization. We do work very closely to let them know what our priorities are, what our areas are and what we're hearing.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. I'm sorry. I think everything froze for a while and the audio dropped. With respect to medical records, upon release, all service members—and I went through that process—can access their medical records. They have to go through the director to get access to information and privacy, but they'll get the entirety of their medical records.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, we've heard those stories. This would come through to the department through an application for a disability. Each case would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. If it was related to their service in any way, then we would look to support that veteran.

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. You're correct. There hasn't been much research done on that. As cases come forward, we don't have any data right now to trend, per se. We are working closely with our colleagues from the Canadian Armed Forces in doing research on reproductive health in women—serving members and veterans.

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll take that question, if my colleagues don't mind. In 2020 we started providing all frontline staff with trauma-informed care. That's the core and the basis of training, but they receive more training on screening for suicidal risks and the road to mental readiness. They have a progression of training that is provided to the frontline staff and to all other staff in the department, in fact.

Veterans Affairs committee  I would say that my anecdote would not be illustrative of transition, because I had one week between leaving the military and joining Veterans Affairs Canada as a public servant. I experienced practically no transition. There was no time. I jumped from one job to the next. My journey would not be typical.

Veterans Affairs committee  What we hear from veterans around transition, especially for those who leave not for voluntary reasons but for medical reasons, is the loss of identity. It's the loss of leaving the family and not having the regimental brothers and sisters there to support them. That is the number one reason we hear for the difficulty in transition.

Veterans Affairs committee  It would be multifactorial. It would depend on whether the individual had applied for our services. They might be released, and they might not have put in an application. We know that 25% of our clients are still serving members. That's the ideal time to put in applications, while they're still serving, so when we work together in our transition centres, all of that can be put into place.

Veterans Affairs committee  If we were to implement a new process or, as in your example, we were approving a new injury, we would start with the staff who received those applications. We would provide them with a new process and the reasoning and all of that. Then we would work to disseminate it within our department to the frontline workers who work with the veterans directly—the case managers and the veteran service agents.

Veterans Affairs committee  It's 1-800-Cyd-Courchesne.