Lawmakers seek more research on veterans' suicide

U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D‐Wisconsin) and Dan Sullivan (R‐Alaska) recently introduced the Veteran Overmedication and Suicide Prevention Act, WXPR reported Dec. 10. The legislation directs the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to conduct an independent study on the deaths of all veterans being treated by the agency who died by suicide or from a drug overdose in the last five years. Baldwin says more than 20 veterans a day are dying from suicide, which she says is an “epidemic.” In a September 2019 report released by the VA, the department confirmed that at least 60,000 veterans had died by suicide between 2008 and 2017. A scandal at the Tomah Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West‐Central Wisconsin (a 246‐bed facility focusing on primary care, mental health and nursing home care) regarding overmedication of veterans sparked a nationwide review of VA practices. In a May interview with WXPR, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said the situation at the Tomah facility had wide‐reaching effects on the Veterans Administration. He said Tomah was the impetus for change in the ways the VA handles opioids. Wilkie said they reduced opioid prescriptions by 51% and they were more frequently offering alternative therapies.