LA County will share data on vets’ suicides

LANCASTER — Los Angeles County will begin sharing data about veteran suicides between the Department of Veterans Affairs and Los Angeles County and explore the possibility of establishing a countywide veteran suicide review team, under a motion approved by the Board of Supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger coauthored the motion with Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

“I am grateful for the collaboration of our community and government partners who are working every day to ensure we help veterans and their families access services

that save and enrich their lives,” Supervisor Barger said in a statement. “Destigmatizing mental health issues is a crucial step in order to stop veteran suicide in Los Angeles County.”

According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, 20 veterans die by suicide every day. The supervisors’ motion will establish a data-sharing agreement to better understand how this issue affects veterans locally.

“It is an anguishing reality that men and women who have put their lives at risk as veterans of the US military are at high risk of suicide as civilians,” Supervisor Kuehl said in a statement. “Data collection and data sharing among all agencies addressing veteran suicide is crucial to effectively providing the best possible mental health services for LA County veterans.”

The Board of Supervisors sought to address this issue by allocating funding for the Veteran Peer Access Network through the Department of Mental Health.

The motion calls for a report back in 90 days with a feasibility analysis on the creation of an LA County Veteran Suicide Review Team that will include recommendations on the composition of the proposed team, team member selection, which department should house the team, and ways the team can work with the California Department of Public Health’s initiative on suicide prevention, according to the motion.

“Clearly, it’s a good idea,” said Dennis Anderson, a veteran and mental health practitioner at High Desert Medical Group. “It is timely, and I hope the Antelope Valley will have a participation in the review team’s activities.”

The Antelope Valley has veterans who are already very involved in suicide response as well as mental health practitioners such-as Anderson.

“I hope we can help,” Anderson said.