New programs, but no new center, for veteran suicide prevention

President Joe Biden's administration increased efforts to reduce veteran suicide, but did not create a new national center focused on veteran suicide as Biden had promised during his 2020 presidential campaign. 

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs already had a central office for suicide prevention and two research centers focused on suicide prevention: the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention and the Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research Education & Clinical Center (MIRECC) for Suicide Prevention before Biden took office. 

Although Biden increased research and grants in suicide prevention areas during his term, he neither created a new center of excellence nor consolidated the existing centers. 

In 2021, the White House released a comprehensive plan to reduce veteran suicides that focused on reducing access to lethal means, such as firearms and medication, for people in suicide crisis, said Rajeev Ramchand, a veterans and behavioral health policy researcher at Rand Corp., a nonprofit policy think tank. 

"The VA and other organizations have been really thinking creatively about different ways to do this, whether that's through public messaging, whether it's through distributing gun storage devices," Ramchand said.

That plan directed the VA and Health and Human Services, Defense and Energy departments to collaborate to improve suicide surveillance, research and program evaluation. 

In 2022, the VA devoted $20 million to Mission Daybreak, which challenged community-based organizations, health companies and universities to develop new ways to reduce veteran suicide. The VA granted the second round of awards in February 2023. The VA also launched a national ad campaign in 2021 encouraging veterans with mental health challenges to access VA resources. 

In 2022, the VA launched the Staff Sgt. Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program to give veterans and their families suicide prevention resources. (The grant program is named for Fox, a 25-year-old U.S. Army sniper who in 2020 died by suicide at his home in Columbus, Georgia.)

The VA has continued suicide prevention activities that preceded Biden's presidency, including a 10-year National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicides that began in 2018. The VA administers a challenge — along with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — for states and cities to conduct activities to prevent veteran suicides.

The most recent veteran suicide data available is from 2021, the first year of Biden's term; that year,  according to a 2023 VA report, there were 6,392 veteran suicides, about 1.8% more than in 2020. Veteran suicides in 2021 and 2020 were both lower than any previous year since 2007. 

Biden did not create a new center to address veteran suicide; But consistent with the goal of his promise, he added prevention programs administered by several federal agencies. So, we rate this Compromise.