Miller-Meeks bill would reauthorize mental health help for veterans

A bill introduced by Rep. Mariannette Miller- Meeks (R-IA-1) late last month would reauthorize an act that helps screen veterans for mental health assistance.

Miller-Meeks says the new bill, the No Wrong Door for Veterans Act , would reauthorize an existing act, the Sergeant Gordon Parker Fox Suicide Prevention Act . “It gives grants to organizations that can do screening for mental health or brain health,” she said. “If their screening shows that they’re in either crisis or that they have need of other services, then they can get referred on. Often the grantees will call the VA hospital to help facilitate making appointments for them. Sometimes they’re in crisis and they need to be seen right away or they’re suicidal. The whole point of this is that through any avenue, veterans can get screened and then sent to a VA facility for care and or telehealth. There was also another bill on expanding telehealth and telehealth with prescription. Our goal is to try to reduce veteran suicide through as many different avenues as possible.”

The act is expected to not only extend program funding, but also look into increasing the cap on awards and standardize screening procedures using tests like the Columbia Protocol . “Currently, mental health providers, psychiatrists, physicians feel that it’s a good screening tool,” Miller-Meeks said. “They like the screening tool, they use the screening tool, and we just want to make it easier for organizations that are grantees to be able to have a standardized device.”

“We also want to measure outcomes; we don’t want federal government money to go to programs that really don’t help. There is a lot of money in funding to the VA system to prevent suicides but unfortunately, the rate of veteran suicide hasn’t decreased very much. If we’re going to have monies going to organizations outside of the VA, we want to make sure that they are #1 spending the money wisely and appropriately and #2 that they make a difference. There need to be outcome measures, as there should be for the VA, for that matter.”

Even though this bill would reauthorize an existing Act, it still has to go through Congress like any other bill. “This particular bill was introduced, then we have to have what’s called a markup,” Miller-Meeks said. “The bills will come up in committee next week or the week after. At that point in time, they’ll be voted upon if they pass through the subcommittee on health, then they will go to the full Veterans Affairs committee for all members to vote upon. From there, typically there will be veterans’ bills that then come together in a package of veterans’ bills to be voted upon at the House on the House floor. From there, then they will go to the Senate. If there’s any changes, it’ll come back to the House.” Currently the bill has been referred to the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Miller-Meeks says the program is vital to veterans and their mental health. “The reason why the Sergeant Gordon Parker Fox Suicide Prevention Grants is an important program is that when people know veterans, and they’re affiliated with veterans – I’m a veteran, my husband’s a veteran, six of the eight kids in my family are veterans. I talk a lot with different veteran organizations and what we find is that often veterans will open up or talk more with other veterans, so to have a facility or an ability for veterans to see someone other than a VA hospital, sometimes they don’t go to seek care or they may not be in the VA system for any other type of care.”

Miller-Meeks thinks many of the younger veterans might not realize what resources are available to them. “This is the 23rd anniversary of 9/11; a lot of individuals enlisted or entered the military at that time. Those individuals are now at the 23-year mark, and they may not know of programs are available or what’s available in their community, Not every city has a VA hospital or a clinic, so this is something that gives access to individuals. We know that our veterans service organizations, whether they’re the American Legion, the VFW, Disabled American Veterans, Wounded Warrior Project, Purple Health Park Project, there’s a variety of different veteran service organizations and or volunteer groups that do a lot with veterans. They can see sometimes that veterans may have needs that haven’t been addressed and so this is just a way to be able to get access for veterans who may then need to be referred on to a VA hospital.

“This is just another tool that we have in our armament to try to reduce veteran suicide. It’s very important to give care to veterans where they live, making sure they have access to services; telehealth is something that expands that as well. But we also know that there are veterans who have distrust of the VA system because of some of the things that the VA has been doing which we’ve tried to have oversight upon. This is another avenue that allows veterans to talk to somebody else. Often the grantees are comprised of former veterans. Our point is they can get access to care through a variety of different circumstances, a variety of different avenues and we want to make sure that they know that we’re here to support them to help them and especially at times when they’re in crisis.”

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