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VA’s Suicide Hot Line Begins Operations
July 30, 2007
Nicholson: “Help a Phone Call Away”
WASHINGTON – To ensure veterans with emotional crises have
round-the-clock access to trained professionals, the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) has begun operation of a national suicide
prevention hot line for veterans.
“Veterans need to know these VA professionals are literally a phone call
away,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson said. “All
service members who experience the stresses of combat can have wounds on
their minds as well as their bodies. Veterans should see mental health
services as another benefit they have earned, which the men and women of
VA are honored to provide.”
The toll-free hot line number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). VA’s hot line
will be staffed by mental health professionals in Canandaigua, N.Y. They
will take toll-free calls from across the country and work closely with
local VA mental health providers to help callers.
To operate the national hot line, VA is partnering with the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS).
“The hot line will put veterans in touch – any time of the day or night,
any day of the week, from anywhere in the country – with trained, caring
professionals who can help,” added Nicholson. “This is another example
of the VA’s commitment to provide world-class health care for our
nation’s veterans, especially combat veterans newly returned from Iraq
and Afghanistan.”
The suicide hot line is among several enhancements to mental health care
that Nicholson has announced this year. In mid July, the Department’s
top mental health professionals convened in the Washington, D.C., area
to review the services provided to veterans of the Global War on Terror.
VA is the largest provider of mental health care in the nation. This
year, the Department will spent about $3 billion for mental health. More
than 9,000 mental health professionals, backed up by primary care
physicians and other health professionals in every VA medical center and
outpatient clinic, provide mental health care to about 1 million
veterans each year.
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Larry Scott --
