VA fumbles on suicide prevention outreach

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VA fumbles on suicide prevention outreach
It needs to do everything possible to prevent suicides among U.S. vets struggling at home.


By Editorial Board Star Tribune
December 27, 2018 — 5:35pm





Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie testified last week before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees. Wilkie became VA secretary in July. A recent report indicated that the VA had left unspent the great bulk of a budget for paid media suicide-prevention campaigns. Wilkie has said that won’t happen again.


An alarming new Government Accountability Office report has detailed how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is falling short on a vital mission — preventing suicides among those vets struggling on the home front after serving their country.

The report, released last month, is especially frustrating because it shows the VA had the necessary funding to promote its suicide-prevention and mental health resources. But only $57,000 of the $6.2 million designated in 2018 for paid media suicide-prevention campaigns — which would have included outreach on social media, for example — had been spent through September.

“Fifty-seven thousand dollars? There are cars on the road that cost more than that,” said Melissa Bryant, chief policy officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).

“There is no justification for spending less than 1 percent of the budget allocated to you. You’re not reaching out by any means possible to a veteran who may be in crisis,” Bryant said in an interview with an editorial writer. “This is a crisis of leadership across the board.”

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