‘People are reaching out’
The Lovell Center in North Chicago highlights suicide prevention for veterans
Last week was Suicide Prevention Week at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago and veterans hospitals nationwide, as veteran suicide rates remain above those in the nonveteran population.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has been putting more money and emphasis on prevention, which includes early detection screening, crisis-line interventions and more media engagement to make veteran mental health services known to veterans, along with active-duty personnel getting ready to leave the service.
“More and more Americans are taking advantage of VA’s suicide prevention resources,” Robert Wilkie, secretary of Veterans Affairs, said in a statement released last week.
According to Wilkie, a Veterans Crisis Line (800273-8255) helps about 2,000 callers every day, and over the past decade, there have been 3.5 million crisis calls, more than 413,000 online chats, and more than 98,000 text messages.
“Tragically, an average of 20 veterans die by suicide each day. Of those 20, 14 have not received recent VA care,” Wilkie added. “The goal of VA’s suicide prevention efforts is not to get every Veteran enrolled in VA care, but rather to equip communities to help Veterans get the right care, whenever and wherever they need it.”
Spending on outreach has also increased, with $12.2 million being spent in 2018, including $1.5 million on paid media, according to Wilkie. He added that the 2019 budget for suicide prevention is approximately $47.5 million, and $20 million of that will go toward outreach.
On Friday, congressional aides from Illinois and Wisconsin visited the Lovell Center for a general tour of the facilities and a review of some of its programs.
Unlike other VA hospitals, the Lovell Center works not only with veterans but also with active-duty personnel, recruits and student sailors at Naval Station Great Lakes, which is just south of the hospital complex.
“There’s been an ongoing commitment to suicide prevention that’s been a top priority,” said Lovell Center Director Robert Buckley.
“Here at Lovell, we see the whole spectrum, and we see it starting in boot camp,” he added. “We have to meet the fleet’s needs, and sometimes it’s a vulnerable time in their lives, and the stress of boot camp can lead to a crisis of their own, so they have ready access to our services here.”
Kristina Lecce, suicide prevention coordinator at the Lovell Center, spoke with the visitors about the facility’s ongoing mission. The center has four suicide prevention coordinators who reach out to the community, respond to crisis line consults, manage cases of of high-risk veterans and provide training for staff to recognize someone in crisis. They handle everything from distributing crisis information to gun locks, which are available in their facilities.
“We’re responding to a lot of hotline calls. We’ve had an increase in hotline calls for the last four fiscal years. I think that’s good that people are reaching out,” she said, adding that the crisis line is important, because people don’t always have a crisis during business hours.
“I believe (the increase in calls) is directly correlated to our outreach efforts that we do, and I think we are really working towards prevention. Before, we were getting our program going and doing a lot of different things, but we are at the point where we can (add) to that public health approach by getting people involved.”
Lecce recalled how the Lovell Center canteen reached out to them so employees could put a mental health information area in the canteen itself.
“(Many) veterans are there in the canteen daily,” she said, “so now we have different areas in the facility reaching out to us to collaborate on suicide prevention, and that’s good.”
She recalled how Lovell Center officials went to a Kenosha County business fair, and a 10-year-old boy walked up and asked if they really could prevent suicides because his mother talks about all the time.
“We gave him some information to give to his mother. You never know who you are going to meet,” she said, which is why the outreach is so important.
According to the VA National Suicide Data Report for 2016, the latest year of available statistics, the unadjusted suicide rate among veterans was 30.1 per 100,000, while the rate among non-veteran adults was 16.4 per 100,000. But the report noted the numbers need to be adjusted for differences in population age and gender, as the veteran population is older and has a higher percentage of men compared to the nonveteran population.
In 2016, the age- and gender-adjusted rates of suicide were 26.1 per 100,000 for veterans and 17.4 per 100,000 for non-veteran adults. Suicide rates for both veterans and nonveteran adults increased between 2005 and 2016. According to the report, after accounting for age differences, the veteran suicide rate in Illinois was significantly lower than the national veteran suicide rate but still significantly higher than the overall national rate. A total of 162 Illinois veterans killed themselves in 2016.