The Department of Veterans Affairs needs to do a better job of reaching out to veterans who could become suicide victims, the government’s leading watchdog agency believes. In a Dec. 17 report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated that the suicide prevention media outreach activities handled by VA’s Veterans Health Administration (VHA) have “declined in recent years due to leadership turnover and reorganization.”
Specifically, contractor-generated content aimed at users of social media dropped in 2017 and the first 10 months of this year, after rising steadily in each of the four prior years.
“VHA did not assign key leadership responsibilities or establish clear lines of reporting, and as a result, its ability to oversee the outreach campaign was hindered,” GAO stated. “Consequently, VHA may not be maximizing its reach with suicide prevention media content to veterans, especially those who are at-risk.”
VA officials agreed with GAO recommendations that the agency make a greater effort to manage its suicide prevention outreach program and “establish targets for its metrics to improve evaluation efforts.”
