June 26, 2019
Scott Wyland | Stars and Stripes
Sailors can be reimbursed up to $500 to cover the cost of their spouses’ professional licenses or certifications if an assignment requires them to move to a different state, the Navy announced this week.
“This is part of an ongoing effort to show Navy families we are working to expand family support programs and facilitate spouse employment opportunities,” said Perry Christiansen, lead for the Navy’s family readiness programs policy, in a statement.
June 25, 2019
Mohana Ravindranath | Politico
The Department of Veterans Affairs is using artificial intelligence to figure out which veterans are in critical need of mental health treatment as part of a massive effort to stem suicide in its ranks, a top priority of President Donald Trump and his VA leadership.
June 25, 2019
June 24, 2019
Tauren Dyson | UPI
June 24 (UPI) -- For many veterans, life in combat is hard, but for those who survive it, the mental stress of war can be deadly, new research shows.
Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder have twice the risk of dying from accidental injury, viral hepatitis and suicide compared to the general population, according to a study published Monday in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. They also have a higher risk of developing chronic liver disease and diabetes.
June 24, 2019
Elsevier | Medical Xpress
According to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, United States Veterans seeking treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at increased risk of death compared with the general population. Veterans with PTSD are twice as likely to die from suicide, accidental injury, and viral hepatitis than the general population. Veterans with PTSD are also more likely to die from diabetes and chronic liver disease than the general population.
June 19, 2019
Leo Shane III | Military Times
Federal suicide prevention efforts in coming months will include increased focus on veterans’ access to firearms, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said during a Capitol Hill appearance Wednesday.
“It is key,” he said during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on his department’s recent efforts to address the problem. “Seventy percent of veterans who (die by suicide) do so with firearms. We’re dealing with a population that has a special familiarity with firearms. So we’re working on ways to build time and space … between thoughts and impulsive acts.”
June 19, 2019
Leo Shane III | Military Times
Federal suicide prevention efforts in coming months will include increased focus on veterans’ access to firearms, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said during a Capitol Hill appearance Wednesday.
“It is key,” he said during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on his department’s recent efforts to address the problem. “Seventy percent of veterans who (die by suicide) do so with firearms. We’re dealing with a population that has a special familiarity with firearms. So we’re working on ways to build time and space … between thoughts and impulsive acts.”
June 19, 2019
Ed Berti | The Mint Hill Times
The Senate did some work recently unanimously passing a bipartisan bill named the Legion Act on June 11th. The bill will expand membership eligibility for the American Legion so that all veterans can become eligible to participate in membership. The bill is also known as the National Service Act, sponsored and introduced by Senator Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona. The bill was introduced on February 14 in the Senate.
June 13, 2019
Richard Sisk | Military.com
The Department of Veterans Affairs now has a policy requiring veterans in wheelchairs to switch to ones provided by the facility during emergency room visits to make sure they're not hiding guns, a top VA official testified Tuesday.
June 11, 2019
Christine Vestal | The PEW Charitable Trusts
CHARLESTON, S.C. — To Army veteran Everett Brockington, 52, there’s no mystery about why so many veterans die by suicide: “They’ve seen things and done things that they can’t handle. And they’ve lost too many of their close friends.”
Most of the veterans Brockington knows rely on one another for support instead of seeking mental health services.
“We talk to each other about our problems all the time,” Brockington said. But he admitted, “It would be better if we had someone to talk to who knew what they were doing.”