National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships
OCE Partnership Impact
Suicide Prevention Month: How public-private partnerships play a critical role in caring for Veterans everywhere
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is encouraging families and friends to reach out and provide support this month—and every month—to the Veterans in their lives. Suicide prevention is the top clinical priority for VA, and VA is working closely alongside other governmental organizations and private-sector partners to ensure that Veterans receive the support they need.
The Veteran’s Health Administration’s (VHA) Office of Community Engagement (OCE) plays a key role in these efforts by facilitating, coordinating, and maintaining non-monetary partnerships that benefit Veterans everywhere.
OCE has also been instrumental in the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS). On March 5, 2019, the President signed Executive Order 13861, establishing PREVENTS and creating an inter-agency Task Force to lead the development and implementation of a national, comprehensive roadmap to change how the nation treats mental health and understands suicide prevention.
Dr. Tracy Weistreich, nurse executive for OCE, served as a deputy lead for the Workforce and Professional Development Task Force within PREVENTS, under the leadership of Dr. Carolyn Clancy, Assistant Under Secretary for Health for Discovery, Education, and Affiliate Networks (DEAN). This team of Roadmap contributors worked to identify challenges and establish best practices for suicide prevention efforts for employees working across government agencies.
“We came to the conclusion that employers need to be equipped to mitigate suicide risk, and that episodic and chronic mental health concerns and suicide prevention efforts need to be talked about openly and regularly,” said Dr. Weistreich. “We need to create a culture that firmly believes suicide is preventable.”
Dr. Weistreich continues to work on implementing best practices identified in the PREVENTS Roadmap and says that VA’s public health approach will improve health outcomes for Veterans.
“Our belief is that everyone has a role to play in suicide prevention, and that our efforts need to encompass everyone,” said Dr. Weistreich. “By targeting everyone through a public health approach, we will inevitably be able to positively influence the suicide risk for Veterans.”
Some VA partnerships coordinated by OCE have a clear connection to improving access to suicide prevention services—OnStar’s emergency services will connect Veterans to VA’s Veterans Crisis Line around the clock. Many partnerships reduce the risk of suicide among Veterans by supporting the public health approach, offering small scale clinical innovations, or by improving access to social determinants of health (SDOH). SDOH are conditions in the environments in which Veterans live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Examples of SDOH are access to transportation, food security, and employment. Some OCE-supported partnerships that support the SDOH and thereby decrease suicide risk are:
- MAZON, which promotes food security for Veterans;
- Pet Partners, which enables therapy animal visits to decrease social isolation; and
- Y-USA, which offers health services to better connect Veterans to their communities and provide a social environment for them to be active.
Dr. Weistreich also added that, “many OCE partnerships are open to all Veterans, regardless of their VHA enrollment status. This means that these partnerships have a greater chance of reaching a Veteran who may not be receiving care from VHA. This makes the suicide prevention components of these partnerships even more important.”
According to VA’s 2019 Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, there are many Veterans who do not use VHA services and the majority of Veteran suicides occur among Veterans who have not recently engaged in VHA services.
For Veterans in crisis or those who are concerned, help is available at the Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255, and press 1, or text 838255, or chat www.VeteransCrisisLine.net.
To learn more about how OCE builds effective partnerships across VHA to support Veterans or inquire about starting a partnership, visit: www.va.gov/healthpartnerships.
External Link Disclaimer: This page contains links that will take you outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs website. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked websites.
Posted September 17, 2020
