By Russell B. Lemle, PhD, Senior Policy Analyst Last week, ProPublica, published an article purporting to expose “How the VA Fails Veterans on Mental Health.” In fact, the story ignored crucial context, omitted larger realities, and used isolated anecdotes to unfairly assail the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

By Russell Lemle, originally on Military.com In the VA’s recently released National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, which covered 2020 to 2021, the suicide rate among women veterans jumped 24.1 percent — far greater than the 6.3 percent increase among male veterans.

By Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early, originally in Jacobin Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the often-hidden wound of war. Post-9/11 wars added hundreds of thousands of former service members to the patient rolls of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — the nation’s largest public health care system — to get treatment for anger and depression, substance abuse, suicidal ideation, and past exposure to military sexual trauma.

On November 16th, the VA released its annual National Veteran Suicide Prevention Report, analyzing data and factors associated with US veterans who died by suicide in 2021.

By Paul Sullivan In 2011, a mother in distress phoned me about her son who had just returned from the war in Iraq.

VHPI recently had the opportunity to correspond with Harold Kudler, M.D., one of the nation’s most experienced physicians who has dedicated his career to treating and serving veterans.

By Russell Lemle, originally in The Washington Monthly In 2019, with the number of U.S. veterans dying by suicide surpassing 6,000 for the 11th consecutive year, Congress searched for fresh ideas to address the crisis.

Earlier this month, the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Health Subcommittee held an important hearing that could potentially lead to the erosion of the veterans’ healthcare system.

This guest essay for Newsday is by Joseph Riotta, a telecommunications industry sales director and VHPI advisory board member whose son Joey is an Air Force veteran.

For years, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has painstakingly labored to track, research and address veteran suicide. Their exceptional work was dealt an unwarranted blow a month ago with the publication of an incomplete report entitled Operation Deep Dive (OpDD). The $3.9 million study from America’s Warrior Partnership (AWP) examined death data of former service members in eight states between 2014-2018.

VHPI Senior Policy Analyst Dr. Russell Lemle organized a multi-organizational effort to provide written testimony on how to stem the veterans suicide crisis.

Over many years as a clinical psychologist inside the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, I was always thinking about how America could better deliver mental health care.