Hoping to come up with new strategies that connect suicidal veterans with help at VA, Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif), said Monday that his committee would hold a roundtable discussion next week on veteran suicide.
“I want my committee members on a bipartisan basis to deepen their understanding of the complexities of addressing veteran suicides,” he said. “We know the majority of veterans committing suicide are not connected to the VA. We definitely need organizations like The American Legion to help us come up with strategies to reach those veterans who are not connected with the VA.”
Takano’s announcement came during The American Legion’s national conference in Washington, D.C. during a fireside chat that included members of both the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
According to VA statistics, approximately 22 veterans commit suicide each day. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R- Georgia) said that in many cases suicide is the result of a medical condition not being diagnosed or misdiagnosed, which can lead to feelings of frustration.
“We’ve got to make sure that all of our medical services to those vets are good so they don’t get into a case where they’re frustrated,” he said.
Sen. Jon Tester (D- Montana ) said that there continues to be a stigma around mental health and suicide that prevents many from reaching out to get the help they need.
“I can tell you unequivocally that people that get help can have mental health conditions fixed just like you fix a broken arm or dislocated knee,” he said. “We have to work as a group, as a society, to try to reduce the stigma as we try to take money and put it into areas that do the most good.”
Next week’s roundtable is expected to include discussions of how the issue of veteran suicide can be addressed and what can be done to reduce the number of veterans who take their own lives.
Takano also announced that a new congressional task force will be formed that will have as its mission addressing the barriers that female veterans face when attempting to access VA benefits and health care.
“We want to be able to overcome those barriers and we want to bring to the surface the barriers that we don’t know, the unknowns about our women veterans,” he said.
The task force will be led by Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif) and will be formed in the coming weeks.
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