This week, President Donald Trump created an initiative dubbed the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide. Military Service Initiative Deputy Director Kacie Kelly shares her thoughts on the executive order.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a task force to address veteran suicide. Tell us about this executive order.
While the executive order is just a piece of paper at this time, it is the first time any Administration has announced a national call-to-action to address veteran suicide. The initiative is tasked with prioritizing research, developing a proposal to offer grants to state and local governments to support efforts preventing veteran suicide, and, importantly, encourages collaboration with the private sector.
This builds on the work the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) has been leading to proactively empower veterans to seek help before they are in crisis through a community collaboration approach in partnership with VA. This is exactly in line with the George W. Bush Institute’s Warrior Wellness Alliance philosophy to connect best-in-class healthcare providers and peer veteran networks.
What are next steps?
The task force should look closely at how the community grants are awarded and how they will be measured. Currently, they are modeled after the VA’s homelessness prevention grant programs, which are lauded as facilitating significant reduction in veteran homelessness. Suicide prevention is a very different challenge and should be awarded and measured differently.
The executive order does not specify if financing will be made available from existing appropriations or new funding. It’s critical the initiative identify this early on. Research has shown for community collaborators to be successful they must have monetary support for administrative, communication, and management needs. In the past, unfunded mandates from the federal government have missed the mark.
