The Department of Veterans Affairs has not provided updated statistics on veteran suicide rates and is still relying on statistics from five years ago to evaluate the effectiveness of their mental health and suicide prevention programs, according to testimony from lawmakers and a veteran advocacy group.
“I am disappointed that VA was not able to release updated veteran suicide statistics in time for this hearing,” Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., who chairs the House Veteran Affairs Committee, said at a hearing Thursday.
The latest VA report found that 22 veterans a day are dying by their own hands, which is a rate below the national average, Miller said.
But that data is old and incomplete because the figures only represent suicide numbers reported from 21 states from 1999 through 2011, and don’t include states with large veteran communities, such as California and Texas, according to testimony from Thomas Berger, executive director of the Veterans Health Council with the Vietnam Veterans of America, or VVA.
“The VVA calls for an updated veteran suicide report that includes data from all 50 states and U.S. territories, and also strongly suggests that VA mental health services develop a nationwide strategy to address the problem of suicides in older veterans, particularly Vietnam-era veterans,” Berger said.
The VA is in the process of updating that report, which was released in 2013, and estimates that it will wrap up an interim report in August. It expects a final report in two years.
Maureen McCarthy, assistant deputy under secretary for patient care services at the Veterans Health Administration, said the VA is working with the CDC to analyze data on all veterans from 1979 to 2015, and had hoped to have it ready for the hearing.
She said right now the data “is very raw — it involves multiple checking.”
“We were told it will be analyzed by the middle of the summer,” she said, noting that it crosses age and sex demographics “that we really want to identify.”
In his opening statement, Miller said the Centers for Disease Control “finally” provided national data to the VA in mid-March.
“Considering the critical interest in the results of the veteran suicide data analysis, I can’t emphasize enough the need for VA to pursue this analysis with a sense of urgency,” Miller said.
Based on the old data, Miller gave the VA healthcare providers credit for keeping veteran suicide rates below the national average, especially considering that rates of suicide have risen significantly over the past 15 years for nearly every demographic except for veterans. But, he said, it is not enough for veteran suicide rates to remain stable.
“Our work will not be over until veteran suicide rates are zero,” he said.
Miller urged VA officials to adopt a suicide prevention strategy that “treats patients as individuals and embraces complementary and alternative approaches to care, where appropriate.”
In addition, the VA needs to better integrate a “veteran and family perspective that incorporates the lessons learned from those that have been on the front lines of the fight against suicide and can offer a personal perspective and a message of hope to those still struggling.”
Congress last year passed the Clay Hunt Suicide prevention for American Veterans, and President Obama signed it into law. The law was named after a 28-year old Marine, Clay Hunt, who returned from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2011 and took his own life.
The measure focused on helping connect veterans in crisis to the care they need at the VA and assists the VA in recruiting high-quality mental health professionals to treat veteran patients.
McCarthy testified that the VA has developed the largest integrated suicide prevention program in the country.
The VA has 800 “dedicated and passionate employees” focused on mental health, including suicide prevention coordinators, veterans crisis line staff, epidemiologists and researchers, she said.
“Veterans who reach out for help must receive that help when and where they need it in terms that they value,” she said.
