Obama signs veterans suicide prevention bill
President Obama signed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act into law Thursday, a measure its sponsor said is aimed at boosting efforts under way at the Veteran's Administration to improve mental health care.
Minnesota 1st District Rep. Tim Walz, who co-sponsored the bill, said the law for the first time will evaluate all mental health care and suicide prevention practices at the VA to find out what's working and what's not.
"There are things over there that are working," Walz said, "The question many times is, are the veterans getting to those programs? And the answer too often is 'no.'"
More than 8,000 veterans take their own lives each year, according to a 2012 study from the VA.
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Walz said he hopes the new law will reduce those numbers.
The VA will have to set up a one-stop, interactive website to serve as a source of information regarding all mental health services for veterans.
The law also authorizes a student loan repayment pilot program to recruit and retain psychiatrists.
Walz said the law should force a change in the culture at the VA.
"Because these are things that are just unacceptable — to lose people," he said. "All the advances that we're making — we need to apply them."
The bill faced some hurdles last year when it was blocked by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma who has since retired.
Coburn had said lawmakers should hold the VA accountable for frequently failing to serve veterans instead of passing the $22 million bill.
The bill is named after Clay Hunt, a Marine veteran who took his own life in March 2011. He had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.