Suicide Prevention & Education

The Office of Science and Technology Policy and the VA Office of Research and Development
Seeking strategies for ways to end the Veteran suicide crisis

A major public health concern that affects everyone, suicide takes the lives of an estimated 45,000 Americans, including 6,000 Veterans, who die each year


​To combat Veteran suicide, President Donald J. Trump recently signed an executive order (EO) titled “National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Suicide” (PREVENTS), directing the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council to co-chair and create an interagency task force to develop a plan implementing a roadmap for the prevention of Veteran suicide at the national and community level.
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Your feedback is needed...

As a result, the task force is releasing a Request for Information (RFI) to gather feedback on how to improve research and the use of research to radically reduce Veteran suicide. Through this RFI, and to ensure the broadest stakeholder input in the development of the national research strategy, VA is seeking input on ways to increase knowledge about factors influencing suicidal behaviors and ways to prevent suicide; inform the development of a robust and forward-looking research agenda; coordinate relevant research efforts across the Nation; and measure progress on these efforts. The public input provided in response to this RFI will inform the Veteran wellness, empowerment and suicide prevention task force, who will develop and implement the national research strategy.
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We are asking our partners in this effort to use their agency and stakeholder communication channels to widely disseminate this request for information, which will benefit all who are working on this effort to make a difference in suicide prevention.
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All public comments regarding the RFI are welcome and should be submitted by August 5, 2019 to ensure they are considered in the national research strategy. Responses may be submitted online at https://www.research.va.gov/PREVENTS/. 
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