VA abandons suicide prevention program

Affairs officials failed to spend millions of dollars earmarked for veterans suicide prevention efforts in fiscal year 2018, leading to a measurable decline in outreach activity, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

“Leadership turnover and reorganization since 2017” led to a “decrease in suicide prevention media activities” over the past two years, the report found. The agency employed no permanVeterans ent national director for suicide prevention between July 2017 and April 2018, and agency employees told investigators that there were not always leadership officials available to make key decisions or run meetings related to suicide prevention outreach. These shortcomings forced staffers to shift “their focus away from the suicide prevention media outreach campaign” and toward other mental health efforts.