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Subscribe to RSSPresident Obama issued an executive order Friday tasking the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand its suicide prevention and mental health services.
Under the order, VA is expected to increase its veteran crisis line by 50 percent by the end of the year; ensure that a veteran in distress is given access to a trained mental health worker in 24 hours or less; and launch a national 12-month suicide prevention campaign to educate veterans about available mental health services.
The order reinforces some initiatives that VA has already undertaken.
In April, VA announced that it would hire 1,600 mental health clinicians to meet surging demand, and the order instructs the agency to use loan repayment programs and scholarships, among other strategies, to recruit those professionals by June 2013.
The order also asks VA to create at least 15 pilot projects in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services to address unfilled mental health staff vacancies and long wait times. The pilots, to be created within 180 days, will test the effectiveness of partnerships with community and rural health clinics as well as substance abuse treatment centers.
Related: Military hopes antidepressant nasal spray will prevent suicides
Previous estimates have indicated that at least 6,000 veterans died by suicide annually in recent years; data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about 18 veteran suicides occur daily.
VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki praised the order in a statement released Friday morning, saying that the agency would work to implement its requirements immediately.
"History shows that the costs of war will continue to grow for a decade or more after the wars have ended," Shinseki said. "The mental health and well-being of our brave men and women who have served the Nation is the highest priority for the Department of Veterans Affairs."
Related: Monthly Army suicides reach all-time high in July
The order targets not only immediate concerns about mental health care staffing and suicide prevention measures, but also long-term goals in understanding the science behind combat-related psychological wounds like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Along with the Department of Defense and other federal agencies, VA is directed to develop a research plan that includes efforts to better diagnose and treat PTSD and TBI.
The president delivered the order Friday as part of his visit to Fort Bliss in Texas, which marks the two-year anniversary of the end of combat operations in Iraq. He addressed troops at the Army post and held a roundtable discussion with service members and their families.
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at NBC News. Follow her on Twitter here.
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Why oh why didn't he do this as soon as he took office???
The VA is a mess. I know this from professional experience. People waiting for the better part of a year for basic items such as chairs for the shower and safety grab bars - because they have a history of falling and injuring themselves!
They need to clean house at the VA from the top down, put efficient people in charge and then give them enough resources to do their job well.
Our Vets deserve that!!!
Just realized why - it's an election year...
Exactly,lets deal with hindsight. Why did Bush start that war...I mean those 2 wars to begin with? Lets also pretend that your overweight self actually enlisted and have any idea of what you are talking about and that goes for all of the other right-wing cowards that never joined the service and could care less about us Veterans that allow you to breathe the air we provide for you...and the slimey leeches that you raise to be cowards.
I laugh at Obama for asking the VA to expand suicide prevention help to vets while he wishes to defund the military budget by a TRILLION dollars.
I laugh at Obama lovers for praising him for "saving" GM & Chrysler (union shops) while they drive around in their Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans (non-union shops) with Obama stickers plastered all over them.
I laugh at Obama lovers for praising Sandra Fluke, a future 1%er who spends $50,000 a year at Georgetown University, who wants others to pay for her rubbers while they ridicule Rachael, the working class girl at "Chich-Fil-A", who asks for nothing.
But, I cry thinking that p(utz could win another term.
Sad...........
The cuts are supposed to be to military hardware purchases like unneeded tanks and such. The military budget and the VA budget are separate. The Ryan budget, on the other hand, cuts veterans' benefits directly, while increasing military spending.
The military cuts were not proposed or voted on by Obama. They were proposed and voted on by Congress. So if you have a complaint, talk to the Tea Party.
"Unneeded tanks"???
Any comments on the other two points?
If it has anything to do with the betterment of this nation and or it's people fagetaboutit, however, it being an election yr and so close at that, they might just have enough heart to throw us a bone, maybe. This nations government needs a shake down and rebuild in the worst way imaginable.
Keep laughing coward...we know...US VETERANS ALREADY KNOW that you and your kind would strip VETERANS of the SOCIALIZED medicine and the services that the VA provides to the actual TRUE PATRIOTS that served this nation. Its socialized medicine isnt it? You pay for it dont you? Yes...it costs money to breathe this free air that you dont deserve to breathe. Next time you judge someone,remember that we are judging cowards like you and we were trained to remove cowards from this planet. Thats right...we hate you so called CIVILIANS more than you hate PRESIDENT OBAMA...and dont thank us for our service...the thanks of a coward means squat.
Here's a novel idea: Have the federal government seize title to all bank-owned foreclosed properties and develop a lottery sytem to GIVE them to veterans (past and present) who are verified to have at least a 50% disability rating from the VA. Why not?
These young men and women not only lost limbs but years of work experience. Their sacrifice is what allowed the rest of us to go on about our lives and get ahead (financially and in the workplace). It is the least we could do. And to further free them of stresses and burdens, they should live in that household free of property taxes for at least the next 5-10 years to allow them the opportunity to "catch up" to the rest of us. Perhaps place a caveat that they can pay some percentage back to the government upon the sale of that home (which, from a tax standpoint, they would have to as a "capital gain" since they got the house for zero.)
According to a May 22, 2011 article in the New York Times, "All told, the (big banks) own more than 872,000 homes as a result of the groundswell in foreclosures, almost twice as many as when the financial crisis began in 2007, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate data provider. In addition, they are in the process of foreclosing on an additional one million homes and are poised to take possession of several million more in the years ahead."
What better way of helping them assimilate back into a civilian environment than to give them at least this much financial security. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALREADY PAID FOR THESE HOUSES WITH THE BIG BANK BAILOUTS, TARP, GOVERNMENT BACKED REFINANCING/PRINCIPAL REDUCTIONS, AND TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS BORROWED AT ZERO PERCENT!! So, technically, shouldn't these homes already belong to the American taxpayer?
This would also stabilize and strengthen the housing market (thus, pushing up home prices, helping whole neighborhoods recover) as it would rid it of the uncertainty on housing values by removing the "shadow inventory".
For example, if your neighborhood has 20 homes on the market but 50 in some stage of foreclosure, "supply and demand" would dictate that housing values will continue to fall. If you only have 20 homes on the market - period - housing prices would be stabilized and, indeed would rise as those were sold and removed from the marketplace. Also, the overall loss in property taxes would be offset with increase in property values.
My only question: Would Republicans oppose this by calling it a "socialist" idea?
Disable veteran here at 90% so I understand the burden of adjustment. Many veterans are having problems with making mends meat to support there families in the civilian world of employment. Health care God bless to all those good doctors who work many long hours and who are understaffed. I have one issue that hurts veterans today who are service connected disability and that is dental care. Dental care is so expensive today that if your not rated 100% disable or service connected disability by dental problems then VA will not cover a veterans needs. This issue needs to be change through congress and there lies the problem that comes down to one main issue it is cost of taking care of service connected vets dental needs, it cost to much and what a terrible shame it is.
Bring our people home!!! Quit sending them out OVER AND OVER AND OVER again..... Get them the help they need instead of patching it up and sending them BACK...WHY WHY WHY is it so hard to see what is it is that is being done to these people????
1.... The NEW Rules of Engagement virtually TIE our soldiers hands so they can NOT do their job...(turning them into glorified security guards)
2.... War creates unhealthy psychological and physiological changes...Anxiousness, sleeplessness, Nervousness, and BOREDOM....add that all together and what do you get???
3.... We keep sending our people for repeated tours...Many get lots of tours I personally KNOW 4 people who are on their 4th time over.... Why?
4.... Many of those with repeated tours don't know if they are getting sent back to hell to sit and do nothing, not knowing if it their turn to get shot this time....
Again...bring our people home, there is NOTHING positive about us being there. We are torturing our own people by doing this....And now our President has to Order our VA to do something about helping these Vets instead of helping all of them right now.... really??? Let's help them all and BRING THEM HOME!!!!
Wilbert thank you for your service to our Country....God Bless you.....Semper Fi.....my dad is also a former Marine......and he hates the current administration for what they have done to our brave men and women who put their lives on the line everyday so WE can voice our opinions here on the internet....those of you who damn them, call them baby killers.....just thank your lucky stars that you live in a country that is the land of the free and home of the brave....all because a solider laid his/her life on the line so YOU could be free.....freedom is not free...it comes at a price and unfortunately that price is the life of a soldier....
Kudos to the prez for tasking the VA with this very important endeavor.
The only question I have is; Did the Republican controlled congress include enough VA budget apropriation to accomplish it?
For you never in the military nay sayers remember this...
Any nation that forgets its warriors will itself be forgotten
Hey Righty...lets forget that it was the right-wing Pharasees that murdered Jesus the Christ for costing them money when He got angry and started flipping tables full of money in His Father House and that Adolf Hitler was also a right wing Fascist responsible for murdering MILLIONS of Jews...and lets deal with your need to hate anyone that disagrees with your need to murder anyone that disagrees with your god named FOX/Money. Lets also notice that you never served this nation and like a loud mouthed cowardly Punk think that what you say actually has some meaning....and most Veterans know that anyone named Wilber has a thing for horses that "speak" to them,especially male horses. What we have left is a coward that loves horses in a weird way. Right-Wing? Read your Bible as to what Christ has to say about the right-wing that murdered him...and you think God favors you? Guess again...Christ was just one more bleeding heart Liberal...while BUSH did nothing about abortion in his eight years of being the worst president that this nation has ever seen...as well as being the "Mastermind" behind 911...and you are just like him...SATANIC.
If he really cared he would bring them home.
Another MISS--If the VA would be more accepting and easier to deal with for ANY veteran--it would cut the DEATH RATES in all categories in1/2 without exception--I personally have been fighting for 8 years to get my full benefits and they just keep sending me to one appeal after another--i have a file full of misrepresentation by VA VSO NSO aand others as it pertains to my case and file--they even had it so wrong that they gave me an infantry mos when my dd214 clearly showed I was 13b40 artillery gunner on 155 sp m109 howitzer--and they can't figure out why i have service connected hearing loss! and when they finally admitted I did have serve loss they gave me the lowest rating and wouldn't recognize the original claim date--so the fight goes on!
I'm so sorry for your experience with the VA. It is shameful.
Thank you for the service you gave to America!
You could care less about the VA and the service it provides to Veterans. Youd take that away from Veterans if you could and all of us Veterans know it too. Its socialized medicine isnt it? You pay for it dont you? We Veterans wish that you would try it...and then welcome back the draft where cowards like you and the goofballs that you raise get to be targets of "friendly" fire...and we love having you around for target practice too.
look around.
it's already too late.
reap what you sow republican'ts
those blaming obama... You are so stupid you don't even count.
Watch 2016!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THIS IS THE WORST STUPID IN CHIEF IDIOT IN THE WH EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey MSNBC why aren't you giving press to 2016 you effing liberal idiots!!!!! So much for fair and balanced MSNBC, guess that's why more people get their news from FOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MORE... OH!MAMA "newspeak"...: The order also asks? VA to create at least 15 pilot projects in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services to address unfilled mental health staff vacancies and long wait times. OH!MAMAAA's ORDER... ASKS??? There's a stupid premise. But what did you expect from OH!MAMA??? Oh well... only a few more months of this idiot in the White House... lol.
As an addendum: If you can't find a way to help your "Warrior" and you feel they need help; reach out to some of the Veterans in your neighborhood for suggestions and/or help. Most of us would be happy to be of assistance, we've been there, we know.
Thank you President Obama. You are carrying out your promise to the war veterans. My Brother is a WWII and Korean War Veteran; he knows the effects of war. Keep up the great work. God bless you and your family as you "Move Forward."
Kathryn are you out of your freakin mind???????????? It took him 3 years + to do this??????????????Stop drinking the kool-aide and take off your rose colored glasses. He is only doing this....wait for it.........wait for it...........IT'S AN ELECTION YEAR YOU MORON!
Sheryl, from inside the VA I can say that Obama has done much more for the VA then your Republican cronies will allow you to know about. Financing has been increased and re-ordered to where it does the most good. Assistance to the homeless and/or directionless Vets has increased and Peer Support Groups are taking root all over the place. Is more needed? YES, One thing that will help is for THOSE WHO WILL GRIPE AND LET SOMEONE ELSE DO THE WORK Need to stop and ask how they can help.
If you or a Veteran you know is in trouble, seek the help of other Vets in the area. ANY of the local Vet Associations or most any other Vet will be glad to aid in finding the assistance you need. Please pull your straw out of the "Kool-Aid" (as you call it) and seek some of the COOL AID that the VA offers.
PS: Unlike YOUR House of Reps, you might want to give YOUR PRESIDENT a half chance, you might Be surprised what can be done with a bit of Co-operation.
Barry Hussein has done squat for anyone but himself. The only reason he is doing Anything is IT'S AN ELECTION YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tro (LL) ble ......... all you ever do is complain. The Flag you show in your Post Pic is exactly what I would expect from a "Red" Faced Re-pube-lickin' Creature from the depths of his money bin.
I feel for the vets who have had so many tours. I am glad President Obama is doing something about the suicides. He gets put down for everything positive that he does because it is an election year. I guess no matter what he tries to do to help the people of our country he is going to be put down for it. I know that the Republicans don't want him to look like he has accomplished anything because that way they can take all the credit when something good happens if they get elected. They hurt themselves when they vote down things that can help people. I just don't have faith in Romney and Ryan, because I don't feel they truly know what it is like to be poor or elderly or have medical problems that they can't pay for. By having all that money to back them, it may look like they are the ones who will win, but they don't realize how many of us are watching them, especially women. Do they think that by getting Mrs. Romney up there on the podium that we will blindly think that he is pro woman. Their stand on women's rights speaks for itself.
I worked as a CNA at a Veterans home in Indiana and I feel so bad for the way those residents have to live. They closed the floor I used to work on after I left for asbestos problems. How many years did those guys have to breathe unhealthy air and the nurses too? I was there in 2002 and 2003 and there was never enough help. We had to rush taking care of the residents who were mostly elderly. That is so disrespectful to them to be treated that way. Is it any wonder our vets don't feel appreciated? Instead of the Republicans fighting Obamas efforts to help them why don't they pull up their bootstraps and find ways to help him without criticizing everything. We have way too much negativism in our country, we need hope and strength of character not the old take away from the poor and elderly and vets to support the rich.
That speech by Clint Eastwood was so sad. Did Romney and Ryan really think that was going to help them? To me it just made a mockery of the elderly.
Hey libtard he's only doing it because, IT'S AN ELECTION YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trouble, what did you do, travel west to live in the deserts through the Rectal Passage?
To: President Barack Obama
From: A.W.N. (sorry personal security, I am sure you understand)
Thank you for this.
I have been called to "emergency scenes" while working ambulance in which veterans were the cause of the call.
This has occurred multiple times for me and it saddens me deeply each time I see the devastation war inflicts on our veterans.
My father was a veteran, he passed from other causes not related to suicide namely smoking of cigarettes.
He shared his experiences and sacrifices made while serving in Vietnam with me only once in his life even though he suffered PTSD from those experiences he was proud to have served his country.
It is about time someone within our government woke up to the fact that as times change and the youth of our nation change with the times so does the affect upon the psychology of our youth who serve our country so diligently.
Again, thank you for your support for veterans.
respectfully,
AWN
How could president Obama not do this!? We owe this, and so much more, to our vets, males and females! Obama's stock has just increased a bit more on my score-card!
What has he been waiting for? An election?
I do not care what party the politician belongs to, if he or she does something to help out the veterans Im all for it.
WHY?
Do 0bama and his handlers really think they'll get more votes from us alive?!?
Dead or alive a vote is a vote.
he has to enroll now in this program so he can start attend counseling session the next day after his heart breaking defeat.
After #BrandonRaub & #NDAA Trust the #VA? You must be crazy!
Obama has been in office for four years and now all of a sudden he wants to do something about it two months before election day. Think of all of the suicides which might have been prevented if he had t aken more of an interest in providing these services while he has been in office. The Defense Bill he has proposed makes major cuts in the mlitary and that includes cuts in pay and benefits. He does not care about the military unless he can make a photo op or can use them for his own political gain. When have you ever seen him visit a military hospital. I did n ot vote for Bush but he made a lot of trips to the military hospitals because he really cared. Obama does not think them worthy of his time.
Everyone in both parties should go see '2016 Abama's America'.
A Very Badly Needed Service DEMANDED by You, OBAMA, way tooooooooo late. You're Not A Business Manager, You're Just a Mannequin in the Presidential Chair.
HE***********DOESN'T**********CARE.******HE*******WANTS**********VOTES