WASHINGTON — A new bill aims to expand suicide prevention services for veterans across the country.
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost (R-Illinois) introduced the Access to Suicide Prevention Act Monday. It would require every VA Medical Center to have at least one suicide prevention coordinator on staff and available to help local veterans, according to a press release from Bost's office.
"Every day we lose 20 veterans to suicide,” Bost said in a press release. “That is 20 too many. We must continue working to improve access to mental health professionals like the critically important suicide prevention coordinators. Our nation’s veterans and their families sacrifice so much on behalf of the United States, and it is our duty to help them during their time of need.”
The bill also takes steps to "further define qualifications, best practices, and duties for these coordinators and directs the VA to implement the findings of a Comptroller General study on Suicide Prevention Coordinators," the release said. This is a follow-up to the bipartisan Support for Suicide Prevention Coordinators Act, which Bost helped to introduce, and President Trump signed into law last year.
Bost introduced the bill with Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-New York) and Rep. Jim Banks (R-Indiana).
