White House creates new national strategy for preventing veteran suicide
by Nikki Wentling
• Stars and Stripes • November 2, 2021
WASHINGTON — The White House released a new national strategy Tuesday for preventing veteran suicide, purporting that it would harness the full breadth of the federal government to tackle the issue.
The strategy contains five priorities, which includes placing greater emphasis on the safe storage of firearms. The plan tasks the departments of Defense, Justice, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security with educating veterans about how to store firearms to limit their access to them in times of crisis.
In addition to emphasizing firearm safety, the strategy aims to limit barriers to mental health care, reduce housing and food insecurity, increase research and improve emergency room crisis care, among other things. These issues will be addressed with a “series of executive actions” in the coming weeks, the strategy states.
“What’s needed now is a comprehensive, cross-sector, national effort — a public health strategy that unites us around a common mission to reduce military and veteran suicide, and lays out the steps to achieve it,” President Joe Biden wrote in a letter announcing the plan.
https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2021-11-02/veterans-suicide-prevention-white-house-strategy-firearms-3472483.html