Good morning and welcome.  I appreciate everyone being here today, and for your interests and concerns on the progress of suicide prevention outreach efforts.  Before we begin, I want to acknowledge a positive step that the VA has taken recently to help veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or “PTSD”.  The VA recently announced that it is easing the evidentiary hurdle that veterans must clear to receive treatment for PTSD.  This is a step in the right direction, and I am glad they’re doing it.

However, to be truly effective in reaching all the veterans who need help—not just those who are already showing up the VA and asking for it – the VA also needs an effective outreach strategy.  We have 23 million veterans in this country—only 8 million of which are enrolled to receive care with the VA.  The VA has an obligation to the 15 million who are not enrolled for care—not just the 8 million who are already enrolled.  If these other veterans have PTSD—or are at risk for suicide—the VA has an obligation to reach out to them, as well—and let them know where they can turn for help.  Last year, upwards of 30,000 people took their lives by suicide in the United States. Twenty percent of these deaths were veterans.  Each day, an estimated 18 veterans commit suicide. By the time this hearing concludes—between one and two veterans will have killed themselves by suicide. These statistics are startling.

As you know, many of our newest generation of veterans, as well as those who served previously, bear wounds that cannot be seen and are hard to diagnose. Proactively bringing the VA to them, as opposed to waiting for veterans to find the VA, is a critical part of delivering the care they have earned in exchange for their brave service.  No veteran should feel they are alone.

As Chairman of this Subcommittee, I have repeatedly called upon the VA to increase outreach to veterans who need mental health services and are at risk of suicide—and members on both sides of the aisle have urged the same.  In 2008, the VA finally reversed its long-standing self-imposed ban on television advertising and launched a nationwide public awareness campaign to inform veterans and their families about where they can turn for help.  As part of the campaign, the VA produced a public service announcement featuring Gary Sinise, and distributed it to 222 stations around the country that aired it more than 17,000 times. The VA also placed print ads on buses and subway trains. According to the VA’s own statistics, the effort proved successful.  As of April 2010, the VA has reported nearly 7,000 rescues of actively suicidal veterans, which were attributed to seeing the ads, PSAs, or promotional products.  Additionally, referrals to VA mental health services increased.

However, despite this success, late last year the public service announcement stopped airing.  I don’t understand this.  If anything, it seems to me we need to be increasing outreach to veterans at risk for suicide, not stopping it.  It is my understanding the VA is planning to produce a new public service announcement, which will be ready by the end of this year. 

However, the question remains—why did the VA stop running the first public service announcement while they work on the second one?  How does it help veterans to go dark for more than a year?

While I commend the additional expansion in outreach that has grown in the way of brochures and other useful steps, I do not think the VA should suspend—even temporarily—outreach efforts like the public service announcement that have proven successful. It is also imperative for the VA to utilize and adapt to technology, including the use of Facebook and Twitter to reach the latest generation of veterans. Doing so, I believe will help transform VA into a 21st century organization and most importantly save lives.

Today, the Subcommittee is assessing the suicide prevention outreach program on national implementation and achievements.  We have a wide range of testimony that will be presented today and I look forward to hearing all that will be said on this vitally important issue.  We appreciate our panelists’ dedication in the formulation of a more comprehensive and targeted suicide prevention outreach program.  These struggling veteran’s deserve our help, and we must work in a bipartisan way to ensure that the VA delivers it to them.