Over 20 veterans commit suicide every day in this country. That number should be zero. These vets are coming back from war with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and many other psychological wounds. These people need our help, and they’re not getting it.
Just last month, a veteran took his life outside of a VA hospital because he was turned away. These kinds of deaths are completely preventable.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has a suicide hotline to help those who are struggling. The problem is that some of these calls are not getting answered. The workers are not doing their jobs very well. Some of them only take five calls per day, and they leave early at that. The crisis calls have increased over the last few years, and there are still not enough people answering these calls.
Greg Hughes, former director of the Veteran’s Crisis Line, said that the workers would:
“… Spend very little time on the phone or engaged in assigned productive activity.”
Senator John McCain, a veteran, tweeted:
Absolutely unacceptable… "One-third of calls to VA suicide hotline roll over" https://t.co/PXfRVJ9frB
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) September 26, 2016
On Monday, the House is considering a bill to get more staff working on the Crisis Line. The Senate is considering a similar bill.
David Shulkin, the VA’s undersecretary for health, said:
“We are saving thousands of lives. But we will not rest as long as there are veterans who remain at risk.”
This subject was brought up at the recent “Commander in Chief” forum. One veteran asked Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump about this issue. The woman asking the question, Rachel Fredericks, started the question by saying 20 veterans commit suicide every day. Trump had to correct her and give a number that was wrong. This is how he talks to a veteran who lost two of her friends to suicide and suffers from PTSD herself.
Here is Trae Crowder’s video about supporting the troops:
Featured image by U.S. Army Materiel Command via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
