On Tuesday, members of the Michigan House Armed Services, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security Committee recommended expanding mental health care for veterans, improving outreach and available resources, and creating a new Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. We continued to discuss a series of bills to establish it.
Bill sponsors Rep. Christine Morse (D-TX), Rep. Felicia Brabec (D-Pittsfield), Rep. William Brook (R-Erie), and Rep. Bob Bezot (R-Howell) previously committee meeting to discuss policy, but the panel continued to take testimony from organizations that support veterans and the military.
U.S. veterans are at increased risk of suicide, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Annual report on suicide preventionIn 2021, suicide was the 13th leading cause of death among veterans overall and the second leading cause of death among veterans under the age of 45.
in michiganAccording to the Department of Veterans Affairs, 171 veterans died by suicide in 2021. That same year, 46,421 former military personnel died by suicide in the United States.
Alcohol and drug use Increases the risk of suicideMore than 1 in 10 veterans have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
To address mental health and substance use disorders among Michigan veterans. House Bill 5276 State law establishes the Michigan Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and requires the agency to implement a variety of initiatives to address veteran mental health and substance abuse, along with issuing a mental health and wellness resource guide. It will be mandatory to collect data on the initiative. Conducts health self-assessments for veterans and service members and provides annual reports on collected data and distribution of resource guides.
House Bill 5720requires the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to provide National Guard and other military personnel with free access to the resource guide in both print and electronic format.
House Bill 5277 The MVAA will be required to partner with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to conduct mental health outreach and provide substance abuse resources to military members and their families.
House Bill 5279 It would create a peer support program between veterans and current military personnel. House Bill 5280 The bill would require the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to develop a “transition bridge program” for military members and veterans, with an emphasis on mental health, wellness and suicide prevention, aimed at bridging the gap between military and civilian life.
Members of Reason for Hope, the Michigan Department of American Veterans Affairs, the Michigan National Guard Association, and the MVAA shared support for the five bills in committee, but the new programs created by the bills will Some shared concerns about what the impact would be. Veterans Administration.
MVAA Director Brian Love expressed support for the bill, but noted there are many challenges to implementing the bill with MVAA’s current funding and capacity.
Love said the state budget for the fiscal year allowed the MVAA to establish an Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, but it does not currently have the capacity to do the data collection and grant management required by House Bill 5276. It pointed out.
Love said the department’s lack of staffing and funding also limits its ability to develop, publish and distribute resource guides.
Love also expressed concern about the requirement for the MVAA to work with the Department of Health and Human Services.
He also noted that the agency’s current buddy-to-buddy program, which would be implemented by House Bill 5279, is currently run by one full-time employee, who also works on other projects. he pointed out. The program also relies entirely on volunteers, who have been difficult to recruit, Love said, and MVAA plans to begin a recruitment campaign later this year.
Love also shared his support for House Bill 5280, noting that the agency is excited to see a program to educate military members about mental health and well-being along with the value of partnering with outside stakeholders, but the bill also comes with its own challenges.
With current funding, MVAA must rely heavily on programmatic and financial support partnerships to successfully develop and implement the Transition Bridge Program. Additionally, government agencies have limited access to military records, making it extremely difficult to connect service members to programs during the two months before and after separation from the military as required by the bill. said Love.
“I want to reiterate that the Michigan Department of Veterans Affairs supports these bills and looks forward to working with the Legislature to help everyone achieve the goals outlined,” Love said.
Rep. Jennifer Conlin (D-Ann Arbor), the committee chair, acknowledged that the bill is a daunting task and will likely require additional funding.
“We have some sense of where additional support is needed, so those are ongoing discussions,” she said.
The committee adjourned without voting on the bill.
