Frank Larkin visited the White House last month and told the world how his son Ryan died by suicide after serving as a Navy SEAL.
Studies would show that Ryan suffered from combat-related brain injuries that today are impossible to detect in living patients, and Larkin said an effort on the order of the Manhattan Project was needed to organize the country, advance our understanding of the underlying risk factors and supportive protective factors, and work to prevent other veteran suicides.
Ryan’s dad was right, and the Trump administration is already taking steps toward his vision of a national response.
No president in history has put the veterans’ cause at the center of his administration the way President Trump has. On March 5, he signed the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide, or the PREVENTS Initiative. This historic executive order looks to protect the veterans who so selflessly fought to defend us.
The executive order created the Veteran Wellness, Empowerment, and Suicide Prevention Task Force that I co-chair, and it includes no less than seven Cabinet members along with key White House officials, including the director of the domestic policy council serving as co-chair. This group will develop a plan to get companies, nonprofit groups, and government at all levels to conduct coordinated suicide prevention efforts to help ensure veterans get access to the services they need.
The order recognizes that no single government program, or even an entire agency, is enough to stop veteran suicide. As the president said, the goal is to “mobilize every level of American society to save the lives of our great veterans and support our heroes in need.”
The new effort will build on our ongoing work at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where I have made suicide prevention the department’s top clinical priority.
More than a decade ago, the department set up the Veterans Crisis Line that started as a way to connect veterans to life-saving care.
Today, we’re focused on comprehensively tracking when and where veteran suicides occur and taking steps to prevent future suicides. Funding is important, and the department is spending every penny it receives from Congress to reach out to veterans in need. We are caring for almost 11,000 veterans who are at a higher risk for suicide, and we universally screen all incoming patients for suicidal intent.
But the department’s public health approach to suicide prevention also means working to ensure that veterans are getting care whether they’re inside or outside the Veterans Affairs system. Most veterans who die by suicide aren’t in the department’s care, so we need to reach out however we can to make sure they’re aware of the help they can get.
One great example of that outreach is the Mayor’s Challenge to Prevent Suicide. The department is working with Department of Health and Human Services officials to get 24 cities across the country to make it easier for veterans to get care in their communities.
We encourage those cities to streamline their referral and screening processes for veterans, create plans to prevent and reduce suicide attempts, and share information about successful programs with other cities.
Suicide prevention among our service members and veterans is a complex task, but our nation has come together before to do what must be done.
During World War II, children scavenged for rubber and scrap metal to help our troops overseas. Food and fuel were rationed to ensure our military could operate effectively, and families were even encouraged to save their bacon fat, which could be used to produce explosives.
America has an opportunity to pitch in once again to help our troops and solve this urgent national crisis. Last month, as President Trump signed the new executive order, we heard a heartwarming example of how we can all help.
Marine Corps veteran Thomas Winkel is director of the Arizona Coalition for Military Families, and he created the “Be Connected” program that encourages everyone in the community to be aware of veterans who might be at risk.
Winkel told the incredible story of a hotel clerk who noticed a veteran in distress as he checked into his room. The clerk was trained over the phone by the staff at “Be Connected” and knocked on the veteran’s door to ask how he might be able to help, a move that ended up saving a life.
“It takes the entire community to be able to do this,” Winkel said.
Let’s be that community.
Robert Wilkie (@SecWilkie) is the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
