VFW Joins Defense and VA Officials to Discuss Suicide Prevention

This week, the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs hosted their joint annual suicide prevention conference in Washington, D.C. VFW Senior Legislative Associate Shane Barker was on hand for a number of presentations, including this afternoon's intriguing remarks about post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

“Secretary Panetta reinforced many of the hallmarks of our public message” said Barker, who handles military health policy issues for the VFW Washington office. "To the VFW, the alarming suicide rates we've seen among today's veterans indicate that we still haven't done enough to properly identify and treat invisible wounds. It will take a concerted effort on the part of the military, VA, Congress, and veterans' advocates to sufficiently address this issue, and we are encouraged to see so many agencies coming together to discuss this issue."

Panetta discussed his four pillars for addressing the mental health challenges our military personnel and veterans endure: Improving leadership, ensuring access to quality treatment; achieving parity between mental and physical health in all aspects of military culture, and emphasizing research into the brain within DoD.

“Secretary Panetta referred to PTSD as ‘the signature unseen wound’ of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Barker. “This is an important distinction, as it brings into focus the importance of actively going out and identifying mental health challenges within the ranks without minimizing the need to address the multitudes of other very serious injuries in these conflicts, such as traumatic eye injury, traumatic brain injury, and serious hearing loss.”

Secretary Panetta and others stressed the importance of working more closely with VA, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the private sector.

Your VFW will continue to watch the changing approach to mental health services very closely to ensure improved services and outcomes for all military personnel and veterans. In the meantime, If you are a veteran in crisis, help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week though the Veterans Crisis Line. Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) and press “1” to speak to someone now. You can also log on to www.veteranscrisisline.net for confidential chat or text a message to 838255.