(Washington, DC) – Today at the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee (SVAC) hearing on veterans’ access to mental health care, SVAC Ranking Member Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) discussed new legislation he has introduced to increase mental health care services available to veterans within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) primary care settings. S. 2210, the Veteran Partners’ Efforts to Enhance Reintegration (Veteran PEER) Act, which is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), would expand VA’s current use of Peer Specialists from mental health clinics to the primary care setting. 

Through the peer support model of care, Peer Specialists assist veterans in accessing mental health services, navigating the healthcare system, and modeling positive health-affirming behavior. The stigma and reluctance of some veterans to seek mental health treatment may prevent veterans who are using VA for primary care from utilizing the peer support model of care, and by expanding this model into the primary care setting will provide another opportunity for veterans to access mental health services through VA.

“Striking recent evidence – including today's hearing, and GAO report – shows excessive wait times and inadequate records, as well as a desperate need for improvement in providing vital mental health care to our veterans,” said Ranking Member Blumenthal. “The PEER program – which my legislation would expand – opens mental health care doors and enables veterans to reach out and help each other. Vets helping vets – peer to peer – can be pivotal to treating post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues, and my legislation will expand promising programs like the one in place at the ERRERA Center in Connecticut. This simple but stunningly successful program shows how veterans can help each other battle out of the black hole of post-traumatic stress and depression, and other invisible wounds of war. The evidence documents that VA failings in mental health care are astonishing and appalling, with a clear, urgent necessity for better leadership and management. My legislation will assure that every asset is deployed in the fight to address post-traumatic stress and mental health.”

Specifically, the Veteran PEER bill would require VA to establish peer support specialists in Patient Aligned Care Teams within VA medical centers to promote the use and integration of mental health services into the primary care setting.  Over a two year period, the program would be carried out in 25 locations.  The legislation directs the Department to specifically take into consideration the needs of female veterans, a rapidly growing cohort at VA, when establishing peer support programs and to ensure that female Peer Specialists are made available to veterans through the program. It also directs VA to  consider rural and underserved areas when selecting program locations. Finally, VA would be required to regularly report to Congress on the progress of the program including  its benefits to veterans and their family members and data on the gender of clients served by the program.

This month, Ranking Member Blumenthal urged VA to address staffing shortages across the Department, specifically vacancies for human resources positions and mental health professionals across the Veterans Health Administration.  In writing to VA Secretary Robert McDonald, Blumenthal urged him to ensure that these critical positions are filled, as “recruiting and retaining a strong workforce at the VA is critical for VA to carry out its mandate of caring for the nation's veterans.”

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