Suicide Prevention Funds for the Military Gets House Approval

U.S. Rep. Holt announced that the 2013 House Military Funding bill will include $20 million more for suicide prevention.

The bill including Holt’s funding passed the House late Thursday evening.  It must pass the Senate and be signed by the President to become law.

On Thursday, Rep. Holt spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to thank the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations for including his request.

“Madam Chair, our Nation just marked another Memorial Day at war and another year in which the epidemic of suicides of our country's service members and veterans continues. In April of this year, The New York Times' columnist Nick Kristof noted that for every American lost on the battlefield, about 25 service members and veterans are dying by their own hands. These are silent casualties of war. And if we're to stop the epidemic, we must recognize it.

“I want to thank the ranking member, Representative Bishop of Georgia, and the subcommittee chair, Representative Culberson, for their recognition that continued funding for suicide prevention and outreach programs for our veterans must be a national priority. I'm pleased that the committee looked favorably on my request and included an additional $20 million for suicide prevention outreach programs, including social media, in this bill. This is the second year in a row that the House has taken this step because the administration and the VA have yet to create a dedicated programmatic funding stream for suicide prevention and outreach,” he said.

The new funding is in addition to $40 million he helped procure for the current fiscal year.

The funding will support the activities that Holt originally proposed in the Sergeant Coleman S. Bean Individual Ready Reserve Suicide Prevention Act, which was named in honor of the East Brunswick soldier who died by suicide after serving in Iraq.

Sgt. Coleman S. Bean joined the U.S. Army when he was 18. On Sept. 5, 2011, he graduated from basic training and went through Jump School with the 173 Airborne. His group opened the northern front at the start of the Iraq War in 2003. After four years he returned home, but was called back to duty  under Individual Ready Reserve Status and assigned to a Unit of the Maryland National Guard. After another tour of duty, he came home and over the course of a summer, unraveled, before committing suicide that September, said his mother.

Following the tragedy, the Beans eventually met many of their son’s contemporaries, many of whom were going through the same things their son had, and many others who told them the wonderful things he’d done.

In December, Linda Bean, Coleman’s mother, provided the East Brunswick Patch with a number of resources  that veterans and their families can use should they need it. Here are those resources.

Both Give An Hour, www.giveanhour.org, and The Soldier's Project, www.thesoldiersproject.org, provide counseling on a confidential basis and both have a national reach.

Give An Hour has therapists across the county that have donated their time and they are easy to find with a zip code search.

Therapists with the Soldier's Project can connect in person, with Skype, by email or other methods.

Both are particularly useful for people who may be geographically distant from military or VA services, said Bean.

In addition, the National Veteran's Foundation runs a hotline and live-chat service staffed by veterans who are trained in crisis management. That number is 1-888-777-4443. Visit them at www.nfv.org.

If a vet is looking for peer support, Vets4Vets is available at 520-319-5500, or www.vets4vets-us.org.

For Guardsmen and members of the Reserves there is Vets4Warriors at www.vets4warriors.com or 1-855-838-8255 or 1-855-VET-TALK.