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Feb 20, 2024

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POLICY AND PROGRAM EVALUATION 1 Suicide Rates Among Veterans Briana Nelsen SWK5006: Social Policy and Planning in Human Services School of Public Service and Education, Capella University Dr. Kelli Barnes July 21, 2023

POLICY AND PROGRAM EVALUATION 2 Suicide Rates Among Veterans In terms of past experiences with policy and planning, I have no experience that I can speak on. The previous social policy class was the only learning opportunity I’ve had, and I can honestly say that I learned a lot from that class. I did learn about the policy passing process and the different levels that a policy needs to go through from introduction to signing and passing into law by the President of United States. When looking at the rates of suicide among veterans, I chose to look further into the John Scott Hannon Act of 2019 and the steps it had to go through to get accepted into Senate and given to the President to accept and signing into law, (S.785 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019., 2020). Veterans who discharge from active duty and return into civilian life have been seen to struggle with the transition. There are various reasons as to why transition is hard for a lot of veterans which can include mental health issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol or substance abuse; employment opportunities, establish stable housing and overall adjustment from the strict lifestyle to a more relaxed one. Veterans struggle to find the balance and research has shown within the first year after separation, veterans struggle the most which as a result lead them to commit suicide. Veterans alone are 1.5 times more likely to commit suicide than that of the general population, (Hooper, 2023). Due to this, the John Scott Hannon Act of 2019 was proposed and introduced by Senator Jon Tester to help reduce the number of veterans falling to suicide, (US Senate Passes the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Healthy Improvement Act, 2020). One of the many purposes of this Act was to improve transitioning assistance for veterans as they discharge from active duty. This starts through the transition program through the VA. This is when they

POLICY AND PROGRAM EVALUATION 3 are still enlisted and gradually works with them as they get closer to their discharge date and after their discharge, (Outreach, Transition and Economic Development: Your VA Transition Assistance Program (TAP), 2023). The main points of the Hannon Act were to provide more services to veterans by increasing access to mental health services and suicide prevention, strengthening the VA’s mental health workforce, providing oversight of those services, and studying mental health treatments to establish effectiveness, (Green, et al., 2021, p. 9). The assistance improvement was further broken down within the Act, so it is clearly seen where all efforts are going to be going. “Develop and make public a strategic plan on the provision of VA health care to any veteran during a one-year period following the discharge or release of the veteran from active duty”, (Green, et al., 2021). Secondly, the VA will look at current prevention programs and assistance will also have research conducted to ensure there are effective and worth continuing to give to veterans. The VA will do be doing this by looking at past suicides among veterans to see where they could have intervened and what is currently helping veterans the most, all of which will further educate the VA on preventing suicides. The last aspect of the Act is to submit reports developed on those successes and failures to help create strategies that can better improve services. The VA reports, “veterans are most vulnerable in the first three months following separation from military service…Furthermore, VA has stated that the first 12 months of separation from service is a period marked by a high risk for suicide”, (Green, et al., 2021, p. 13). Many veterans come home with PTSD, depression from exposure to trauma and even have physical disabilities they now must live with that commonly includes Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). In addition to dealing with these ailments, they also must figure out how to live as a civilian. They must find housing and employment but often fall short of being able to do so

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