The Veterans Affairs case manager assigned to Lionel Desmond faced “significant bureaucratic barriers” that resulted in the months-long delay in getting him clinical services in Nova Scotia after he was discharged from an in-patient psychiatric facility, a provincial fatality inquiry heard Tuesday.

Marie-Paule Doucette testified that both she and the care team at Ste. Anne’s Hospital in Montreal felt it was a priority that the Afghanistan veteran with complex PTSD get connected to mental health professionals in his home community, especially given that he showed only “minimal progress” during his 2½ month stay in the summer of 2016.

On Jan. 3, 2017,