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October 02, 2010
Lawmakers Urged To Do More To Prevent Troops From Taking Their Own Lives
In a letter to the editor of the New York Times (9/27, A22), US Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) asserts that while the US government "can and must do more to prevent returning troops from taking their own lives," legislation to "require regular...outreach by the Defense Department to those at-risk Guard and Reserve members who don't have the benefit of the kind of support structures available to the active-duty population" was "not included in the Senate version of the yearly Pentagon authorization bill."
Holt argues, "One thing the Pentagon" and the Department of Veterans Affairs "could do tomorrow is contract with the highly successful nonprofit Vet2Vet program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Its peer-to-peer veteran counseling program is widely credited with preventing suicides among New Jersey Guard members."
Posted by admin at October 2, 2010 05:08 PM