The campaigns have resulted in nearly 50 million VA website visits and a decrease in women veteran suicides.
The American Legion’s Be the One mission is to encourage Legion Family members and loved ones to act when a veteran is in crisis, and to let veterans know that it’s OK to reach out and ask for help. The mission is to save lives.
Bobbi Hauptmann, senior director of Communications and Actions Team Office of Suicide Prevention for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), shared during a veteran service organization call on May 6 how the VA is addressing veteran suicide, particularly women veteran suicide.
The VA released its National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report last December that analyzed veteran suicide from 2001-2022 (the most recent years for data). From 2021 to 2022, age-adjusted suicide rates for women veterans decreased by 24.1%, and firearm involvement in women veteran suicides fell from 51.6% to 45.4%.
“We know suicide is preventable,” Hauptmann said. “And we know this public health approach of talking about it and combining the clinical and the community (will help stop suicide). We all have a role to play.”
The VA has several national media campaigns targeted toward women veterans and suicide prevention. This includes:
· “Don’t wait. Reach out” videos. Reaching out and asking for help is the theme throughout all the campaign videos, Hauptmann said. And the call to action is va.gov/reach. Since the initial launch of the “Don’t Wait. Reach Out” campaign in October 2021, it has garnered over 5.2 billion impressions and nearly 4.9 million visits to the website.
· The Veteran Crisis Line media campaign resulted in 21 million visits to the website, veteranscrisisline.net/.
· The “Keep It Secure” lethal means safety campaign, that provides messaging about lifesaving time and space between the person in crisis and a gun, has garnered over 2.4 billion impressions, 1.5 billion completed views and 23 million website visits (va.gov/reach/lethal-means/).
“It’s back to that public health approach,” Hauptmann said. “There are multiple strategies that we want to make sure that everyone knows about, and we can all play a role. It’s really about empowering each other to empower veterans and our loved ones to seek help and know that this work together is really vital in helping to prevent veteran suicides.”
In her remarks, Hauptmann also included information on the VA’s Women Veterans Call Center that provides women veterans information about relevant VA benefits, services and suicide and homeless crisis lines. Reach the Women Veterans Call Center at 855-VA-WOMEN (855-829-6636). Or visit this website.
- Be the One