Dr. Sharon Lambert:

In my opening statement I mentioned a study done in 2018 in the United States that said PTSD was costing approximately $232 billion. A more recent study in the UK from 2022 stated that per individual, the burden of cost to the State due to PTSD was £14,780. It argued that was a very conservative estimate because it did not include all of the other challenges coming on the person. In terms of emotional pain, trauma is costly for the individual and the family but it is also financially costly. We are sometimes coming too far in that journey and spending money on justice-related responses, which can keep people on the same path rather than deterring them from it, because it is not a health response. People in the Department of justice will not like me, but taking some of that money and shifting it to the Department of Health might be one way to start.