Veterans Affairs Department said to be implementing suicide prevention programs

VA IG says suicide prevention programs implemented

WASHINGTON — The Veterans Affairs Department appears to have stepped up its suicide prevention efforts.

The agency’s inspector took a look at 24 facilities and found they generally met new requirements like appointing suicide prevention coordinators to track high-risk veterans, according to a report released Tuesday.

It did say the coordinators and medical providers could do a better job of collaborating with each other. In a letter in response to the IG, a VA official said this fall, the agency would begin using a new system of tracking communication between the suicide prevention coordinators and medical providers.

The VA estimates there are as many as 6,400 suicides annually among all veterans.

New policies were implemented after growing concern about the number of suicides among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Among the suicides was the 2004 death of Jeffrey Lucey, a 23-year-old former Marine corporal, who hanged himself in his parents’ home two weeks after the Northampton Veterans Medical Center in Leeds, Mass., released him.

_____

On the Net:

IG’s report: www.va.gov/oig/54/reports/VAOIG-09-00326-223.pdf