Coaching Into Care has been identified by Congress to help Veterans and their families with suicide prevention. Family members can play a key role as they are often the first to hear a Veteran reveal their thoughts about suicide. Strong family relationships can buffer the risk of suicide and support the Veteran’s decision to seek care. CIC is looking at current practices and developing new procedures to support families who have concerns for the suicide risk of the Veteran in their family. These include ways for family members to talk about the safe storage of weapons in the home and finding mental health treatment to decrease suicidal thoughts. Over the next year, CIC will be testing these new procedures and getting feedback from callers about their impact. Stay tuned!!

September is Suicide Prevention Month, and we want Veterans to know that they don’t have to solve life’s challenges alone.

Suicide is a complex problem, and stressful life events like divorce or job loss can be risk factors. VA.gov/REACH offers resources to help support Veterans across a wide range of challenges, before these problems become overwhelming.

Suicide is preventable, and we all have a role to play. Help us spread the word with the “Don’t Wait. Reach Out.” campaign toolkit here.

Empowering and Educating Veterans’ Family Members and Caregivers Toward Supporting and Improving Veterans’ Mental Health Care

Family members and caregivers of Veterans are often the first to see the impact of mental health issues on their daily functioning. As such, they are in a unique position to support Veterans in accessing and utilizing mental health services. The Department of Veteran Affairs has committed to offering support to Veteran’s loved ones and encourages clinicians and researchers to focus attention to better understand how best to provide this support. This symposium on August 4th described recent initiatives and findings to advance these priorities.

This panel included the following contributors: Drs. Shirley Glynn, Stephen Russell, Megan Shepherd-Banigan, Cindy Swinkels, and Ms. Mia Carlyle.