
The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV)
Act was signed into law on February 12, 2015.
As we reported on
November 24, 2014, the law is named for
Sgt. Clay Hunt, a decorated Marine who became a veterans’ advocate after
leaving the military in 2009.
He
suffered from
PTSD but was given only a 30% rating from the VA. Getting the
mental health care he needed was difficult, time-consuming and frustrating. He
appealed his rating, but the VA lost his paperwork. After enduring the hassle of
submitting it all again, he took his own life in 2011.
Just weeks after his death, the VA approved
the appeal and awarded him a 100% rating. Tragic.
This SAV Act will require the VA Secretary to establish a
website that will centralize information about VA mental health services and
update it at least once each 90-day period.
The law authorizes the VA to begin a 3-year pilot program to
recruit additional psychiatrists by offering to repay their psychiatric
medicine-related education loans.
The
VA will also establish another 3-year pilot program to assist service members with
the transition from active duty to veteran status while improving access to
mental health care. This program will be put into effect at a minimum of 5
Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs). Each program will include a
community-oriented veteran peer support network and a community outreach team
for all the medical centers in each of the VISNs.
The
new law will give the VA Secretary the authority to work with nonprofit mental
health organizations on suicide prevention among veterans and to select a VA
director of Suicide Prevention Coordinator to oversee the program.
The
law also allows combat vets access to VA medical care—including hospital and
nursing home care—for conditions that are not service-connected for an
additional year, as long as the veteran was discharged or released from active
duty between 1 January 2009 and 1 January 2011 and did not enroll in the VA
health system for such care during the 5-year eligibility period after their
discharge.
In
addition to these main points, the law also establishes ways to monitor the
VA’s progress as it implements these new provisions.
We
are encouraged to see steps being taken to help our veterans who struggle with
these very real issues. We sincerely
hope that this new law will be effective in preventing and ultimately
eliminating these terrible tragedies.
If
you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, help is
available. We encourage you to reach out
to the Veteran’s Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 or www.VeteransCrisisLine.Net or to any of the many local suicide crisis lines.
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