Thursday, July 27, 2017

AMENDMENT TO COMBAT VETERAN SUICIDE INTRODUCED

Washington, D.C. - July 27, 2017 (The Ponder News) -- Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18) introduced an amendment to H.R. 3219, the Department of Defense Appropriations bill, to combat veteran suicide. As the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) David Shulkin, M.D. recently noted, an average of fourteen out of twenty veterans committing suicide every day do not receive services from the VA. Congressman Murphy's amendment would allow VA funds to help more veterans access evidence-based care.

"It is tragically clear that we need to find new, better ways outside of the traditional system to reach and treat our veterans; the current system does not work for many and no one system can work for all," said Murphy, a Navy psychologist who currently treats veterans suffering from PTSD/Traumatic Brain Injury at Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda.

"Allowing public-private partnership pilot programs to deliver innovative, evidence-based, accountable, forward-looking models of care to those who have served is crucial to improving veterans mental health care and turning the tide on veteran suicide."

Specifically, Murphy's amendment calls for greater ability for treatments to address the veteran suicide crisis by connecting veterans with community and non-profit mental health networks in order to provide expedited access to evidence-based mental health care services. Murphy’s amendment to the appropriations bill also gives VA Secretary Shulkin the authority to create an expedited credentialing process for veteran mental health networks to ensure they are delivering evidenced-based therapies with same-day access to care while demonstrating effective clinical patient outcomes.

Read the full text of the amendment here.

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