National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Suicide
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National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Suicide
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. On average, 20 service members and veterans die by suicide each day. As a Nation, we must do better in fulfilling our solemn obligation to care for all those who have served our country. I am therefore issuing a national call to action to improve the quality of life of our Nation's veterans—many of whom have risked their lives to protect our freedom while deployed, often multiple times, to areas of prolonged conflict.
Answering this call to action requires an aspirational, innovative, all-hands-on-deck approach to public health—not government as usual. The Federal Government alone cannot achieve effective or lasting reductions in the veteran suicide rate. This is not because of a lack of resources. It is, in fact, due substantially to a lack of coordination: Nearly 70 percent of veterans who end their lives by suicide have not recently received healthcare services from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
To reduce the veteran suicide rate, the Federal Government must work side-by-side with partners from State, local, territorial, and tribal governments—as well as private and non-profit entities—to provide our veterans with the services they need. At the same time, the Federal Government must advance our understanding of the underlying causal factors of veteran suicide. Our collective efforts must begin with the common understanding that suicide is preventable and prevention requires more than intervention at the point of crisis. The Federal Government, academia, employers, members of faith-based and other community, non-governmental, and non-profit organizations, first responders, and the veteran community must all work together to foster cultures in which veterans and their families can thrive.
The United States must develop a comprehensive national public health roadmap for preventing suicide among our Nation's veterans, with the aspiration of ending veteran suicide once and for all. This roadmap must be holistic and encompass the overall health and well-being of our Nation's veterans.
Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to end veteran suicide through the development of a comprehensive plan to empower veterans and end suicide through coordinated suicide prevention efforts, prioritized research activities, and strengthened collaboration across the public and private sectors. This plan shall be known as the President's Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide or PREVENTS (the “roadmap”).
Sec. 3. Establishment of the Veteran Wellness, Empowerment, and Suicide Prevention Task Force. (a) There is hereby established the Veteran Wellness, Empowerment, and Suicide Prevention Task Force (Task Force), co-chaired by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy (Co-Chairs).
(b) In addition to the Co-Chairs, the Task Force shall include the following officials, or their designees:
(i) the Secretary of Defense;
(ii) the Secretary of Labor;
(iii) the Secretary of Health and Human Services;
(iv) the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development;
(v) the Secretary of Energy;
(vi) the Secretary of Education;
(vii) the Secretary of Homeland Security;
(viii) the Director of the Office of Management and Budget;
(iv) the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; and
(x) the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Sec. 4. Additional Invitees. As appropriate and consistent with applicable law, the Co-Chairs may, from time to time, invite the heads of other executive departments and agencies, or other senior officials in the White House Office, to attend meetings of the Task Force.