WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called on leadership at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide more information regarding its efforts to address the crisis of veteran suicides including critical improvements to the Veterans Crisis Line following the VA’s recently passed target date for implementation of those improvements on September 30, 2016.

Isakson, along with U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and others sent a letter to VA Secretary Robert McDonald expressing their serious concerns regarding the “epidemic level” of suicides among veterans and asked the VA to detail the steps it is taking to ensure that veterans in crisis can rely on the Veterans Crisis Line.

The VA committed to implementing several recommendations put forward in a February 2016 VA Inspector General report by Friday, September 30, 2016. The senators wrote, “As that date has now passed, we ask you to confirm that you have met this commitment, and we seek your input on how Congress and the VA can work together to strengthen the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) and ensure that it has the resources necessary to perform its urgent mission.”

Last week, Isakson supported the No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act, legislation introduced in the Senate by U.S. Senator John Thune, R-S.D., and co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that aims to address the issue of improving the VA’s crisis line and reducing veteran suicides. Unfortunately, the bill’s final passage was blocked by Senate Democrats.

The letter to McDonald also follows a recent VA report on “Suicide Among Veterans and Other Americans 2001-2014.” According to that report:

• Sixty-five percent of all veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older.
• Veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults. This is a slight decrease from the 22 percent that was estimated in 2010.
• Since 2001, U.S. adult civilian suicides increased 23 percent, while veteran suicides increased 32 percent in the same time period. After controlling for age and gender, this makes the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for veterans.
• Since 2001, the rate of suicide among U.S. veterans who use VA services increased by 8.8 percent, while the rate of suicide among veterans who do not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent.
  • In the same time period, the rate of suicide among male veterans who use VA services increased 11 percent, while the rate of suicide increased 35 percent among male veterans who do not use VA services.
  • In the same time period, the rate of suicide among female veterans who use VA services increased 4.6 percent, while the rate of suicide increased 98 percent among female veterans who do not use VA services.

Isakson and Blumenthal were joined by Thune, Klobuchar as well as U.S. Representatives Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Mark Takano, D-Calif., chairman and acting ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and David Young, R-Iowa, in sending the letter, which is included below.

    October 4, 2016

The Honorable Robert McDonald
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue, Northwest
Washington, DC 20240

Dear Secretary McDonald,

The recent release of the Department of Veterans Affairs’(VA) report on “Suicide Among Veterans and Other Americans 2001-2014” confirmed what we have all believed – the incidence of veteran suicide is at an epidemic level. Finding and implementing all possible remedies to prevent these tragedies must be the top priority of VA. Most urgently, veterans must be able to reach assistance during episodes of crisis, which is why the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) is so vital. Troubling to us are recent reports showing that the VCL has not served as the beacon of hope it was intended to be. Instead, it has become yet another source of bureaucratic frustration for too many veterans - with one third of calls being diverted to an outside contractor, and many of those being directed to an answering machine or being put on hold. This is unacceptable and disingenuous to our veterans who have served in the armed forces and are in need of help.

These complaints were substantiated in a February 2016 report from the VA Inspector General (VAOIG). The report included seven recommendations; your agency concurred with these and committed to implementing them by September 30, 2016. As that date has now passed, we ask you to confirm that you have met this commitment, and we seek your input on how Congress and VA can work together to strengthen the VCL and ensure that it has the resources necessary to perform its urgent mission.

We would also like to bring your attention to provisions in the government funding bill enacted at the end of last month, P.L. 114-223. These provisions require VA to provide individuals who contact VCL with the immediate assistance of a trained professional and to adhere to all relevant requirements of the American Association of Sociology. Both the statutory nature of these requirements and the purpose they serve necessitate VA’s compliance without delay.

Hiring additional personnel for the VCL facility in Canandaigua, New York, as we know VA has recently done, is an important first step. So too are your efforts to open a back-up call center in Atlanta, which is scheduled to start taking calls next month. Your push to increase monitoring for efficiency and quality assurance, and to establish a Clinical Advisory Board to share best practices are crucial to improving services at the VCL. However, given the millions of calls placed to the VCL each year, and the crucial nature of timely intervention, we must do more to ensure – without delay – that no call goes unanswered.

By October 15, 2016, we respectfully request that you that you confirm compliance with the new legal standard established in P.L. 114-223. we also ask that you provide the information requested below no later than that date, so that we may be assured VA has addressed the deficiencies identified by the VAOIG:

• Please provide the dates upon which VA completed, or plans to complete, each action item identified in VAOIG’s recommendations.
• Please provide a copy of the draft VCL Veterans Health Administration Directive and draft VCL Employee Handbook.
• Please provide the algorithms developed to provide guidance during the emergency dispatch process. 
• How is VA ensuring that the steps put in place to address concerns about services provided by contractors - contract modifications and a Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan for the back-up call center – will be adequate?
• What quality assurance measures has VA put in place for the VCL?
• How many employees have completed the new employee orientation? 
• Does the VCL provide individuals who contact VCL with the immediate assistance of a trained professional and adhere to all requirements of the American Association of Sociology, as is now legally required by P.L. 114-223? If not, how and by when will VA ensure that it meets this statutory obligation? 

As important as it is to ensure veterans in crisis can turn to the VCL, many more reforms are required to address veterans’ suicide - including telemedicine for mental health consultations, improvements to housing assistance programs, and reforming the broken benefits appeals process. We remain eager to work with you to comprehensively address this crisis. We look forward to your confirmation that VA has completed the VAOIG’s recommendations and complied with its statutory obligations. 

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The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in the 114th Congress. Isakson is a veteran himself – having served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966-1972 – and has been a member of the Senate VA Committee since he joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home state of Georgia is home to more than a dozen military installations representing each branch of the military as well as more than 750,000 veterans.