BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL
ON AN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE WHITE HOUSE PREVENTS TASK FORCE
Via Teleconference
9:01 A.M. EDT
MS. LEAVITT: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's briefing call on the PREVENTS Act Task Force announcement that will take place at 2:00 p.m. today in the Rose Garden, weather dependent on the Rose Garden location. This briefing will be conducted by [senior administration officials.]
Please note that both the opening remarks by both [senior administration officials] will be followed by a question-and-answer portion, but all of the information is on background to a senior administration official, and all information is embargoed until the conclusion of this call.
With that, I am happy to introduce [senior administration official].
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Hey, everyone. It's a great honor to be here today. I am -- been at the White House for coming on a year. But two years ago today, I was in Mosul, Iraq, as a Marine. I'm a Marine reservist, and the opportunity to go overseas and come back and go through that transition process that so many veterans do, and then to come here and to work on this project to help end veteran suicide has been just the honor of a lifetime. I think today is an extremely exciting day for the country and for this administration.
I want to let [senior administration official] talk to you about -- a little bit about what PREVENTS is and what the roadmap consists of and the recommendations outlined in it, but I just want to underscore the challenge before us. And as I'm sure many of you know, this veteran suicide rate has (inaudible) very high for very many years. About 6,000 veterans a year take their own lives, and that’s about 1.5 times that of the general population suicide rate. And female veterans are even worse; they're 2.2 times that of the general suicide rate for the population.
And as you all know, suicide is a massive public health problem now that has only grown dramatically in the last 10 to 15 years. So it's essential that we address it.
And this is the first all-of-government interagency effort at tackling veteran suicide and, through that, the suicide problem more broadly as well. So it's extremely exciting and an extremely important day considering all of that.
So, I will let [senior administration official] talk you through a little about the roadmap, the EO, the requirements of the EO, and what the roadmap consists of.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. And this is [senior administration official]. I'm a clinical psychologist by background. I was asked to take the position as executive director. I was actually announced exactly a year ago today. And before that, I worked -- I led a national non-profit organization that I had founded that provided free mental healthcare to service members, veterans, and their families.
And I was asked just to read the executive order as a member of the military and veterans service organization community in March of 2019 when it was released. And I was interviewed about it and, you know, what were my thoughts as a mental health professional. And I thought, at the time, this is extraordinary. If we are able to do this, we will change the way our nation deals with suicide as a country.
And the implications, I thought, were massive. I never imagined that a couple months later I would be asked to consider leading this effort as executive director. So it is a tremendous honor, and it is literally the work of my life to get to this point.
This is, as [senior administration official] said, the first-ever nationally focused effort on suicide. The executive order was written intentionally as an aspirational effort. We can prevent suicide, but in order to get there, obviously, we have to do a lot of things.
It is also an interagency effort; all of the task force agencies have been involved. We've worked with over 150 subject-matter experts inside and outside of government, 15 federal agencies over the last year to put this together.
This is also a whole-of-nation. We cannot do this from the government only, pushing down. This has to be at the community level, and we've been working and will continue to work over the next two years as we continue now with implementation.
And obviously, the life of this effort, the executive order, although it has a three-year life, if you will, we plan and expect that our work over the next two years to implement will actually ensure that this anchored in communities and in our nation.
So, it's aspirational. It's also a public-health focus, which again, for the first time ever, to put suicide as a public health crisis, a concern that is not just for our veterans, but as [senior administration official] rightly said, this is a serious issue in our nation. We have seen an increase of over 30 percent in suicide rates over the last 25 years. It is now the second-leading cause of death for people aged 10 to 35, which is just shocking and concerning.
And with the current additional stress and strain caused by the COVID crisis and the economic stress in our communities, we are very, very concerned that we are going to see those numbers go up even more. And so even though we had no idea COVID was coming, it is fortuitous, to say the least, that we have been working for the last year to put together this plan and we already have multiple partnerships and efforts underway at the state, local, national, agency-wide, all of government.
So there were three deliverables included in the executive order. The first was this roadmap that we are releasing today. And the roadmap is the plan. How do we get there? The roadmap itself is a 60-page document that outlines 10 recommendations, 9 priorities. And with it is also posted -- will be posted online on our PREVENTS website -- the background material: you know, a 300-page document that goes into how did we get there, all the research, all the different input from our stakeholders, our leads that helped worked with us over the year. So, the roadmap -- that’s one major deliverable.
Another deliverable is the National Research Strategy. So what does that mean? We have to better understand suicide. We have to understand not only basic information about suicide, and we have to improve how we access data about suicide, and we have to move forward to understand not only what are the interventions that are effective -- that's absolutely critical.
First of all, we know -- we know some of the (inaudible) about suicide. We have information that can guide us, but there's so much we don’t know. We need to understand about interventions. We need to understand what interventions work from which individuals, at which points in time, for our veterans.
We know that transition out of the military is often a critical time. We know for, overall, that compounding factors -- so if someone went into the service and had experienced trauma, or maybe their predisposition was, in their family history, you know, a history of depression or anxiety -- that could be a factor that sets them up to be more at risk, or if they experienced financial stressors or loss of sense of purpose. All of these factors can affect an individual, but there is no one single factor. So how do we think about and understand?
So the expanding the research ecosystem is more about ensuring that we can identify data, share data, integrate data, translate data so that it can be used at the community level, at the individual level, more quickly, more rapidly.
And we're again, looking inside of government, across all government agencies, but also outside of government, working with some of the major universities and gathering information and data from communities.
And then the third deliverable was to develop what the ideal, if you will, legislative proposal would look like. So our work over the last year has been studying, looking, understanding what do we need. And what we know we need is our support efforts that focus on improving, increasing collaboration and coordination at the community level. We need to be able to support the good work that is already being done that's often siloed. And so we’re looking at, over this next year, what is currently being -- what is currently available at the government level, across agencies, in terms of funding.
But we’ve also been tracking and looking and meeting and talking with legislators and those advocates who are working so that we can see: What are the gaps, and what needs to be added to what already is there? But, again, back to the community level: What can we do already to ensure that what’s available, what’s being delivered is coordinated, supported, and best practices are gleaned and shared?
So those are the three big deliverables, and those are the areas that PREVENTS is focused on, is working on through these recommendations, through our priorities.
The other massive, huge piece of this that I referenced -- this is a public health effort. In order to do any of this work, in order to succeed in any of this work, we have to change the culture of mental and specifically around suicide -- yes, within the veteran community, but also more broadly, because our veterans live in our society. They live in our communities. They’re in our workplaces. We need to reach those veterans who are not connected to the VA. We need to partner with the VA to ensure that our messaging is coordinated.
And so, in a few weeks, we will be launching a national public health messaging campaign. So you can think broadly of campaigns that we’ve all grown up with, like “Buckle Up for Safety” and “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” -- campaigns that changed the way we think about an issue. That’s what we’re after: culture change that then allows those individuals, who are struggling, to be identified earlier; those individuals who know someone who they’re worried about, to be able to talk to that individual, to know it’s okay.
This campaign will educate Americans about risk factors, about protective factors, and will also dispel many of the myths that currently exist that have always existed around suicide -- the ones that most people think it’s still true, “If I ask someone -- ‘Are you suicidal?’ -- maybe I’ll put that idea in their mind.” That’s not true. We actually know that asking someone if they’re thinking about harming themselves can actually be the step that’s needed to help that person say they are struggling, and then we’re able to get them to help.
So I’ll stop there. And, [senior administration official], you may want to add other points, but that’s basically the overview of all that we’re doing. And we’re, again, very grateful that you all are interested in this story. It’s a really critical story for our nation and for our (inaudible).
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. I just want to underscore, you know, two things. One is, of course, you know: Why is this relevant? Why is this newsworthy? Your job is to report the news.
And it’s relevant and newsworthy because there’s never before been this kind of interagency effort across the government and also that reaches into civil society to address this incredibly pressing public health issue that just has seemed to be ignored for a very long time. So that’s why I think this is important.
And obviously, (inaudible) in government, there’s a lot of cynicism: “How is this going to work? There have been a lot of other plans. Those haven’t worked.” And, again, I would point to the interagency aspect of this, and also the partnership and civil society that we’re calling upon as part of this effort and hoping to support through future legislation.
As you may know, approximately 20 veterans and Guardsmen commit suicide a day. And, unfortunately, very -- only about 30 percent, 6 of those 20, have any connection to VA. So, many of these veterans don’t go to VA. They don’t get healthcare there. They’re not involved. When I came back from deployment, I had no thought of going to the VA, and many veterans share that view.
So I think, to be effective, we have to be much broader than just VA, and that’s why I’m so hopeful about this. And my colleague underscored the importance of COVID and why this is even more timely and more relevant. There’s some research that shows that, for every percentage point increase in unemployment, the suicide rate increases by approximately 1 percentage point. And we’re already at incredible highs for suicide, and we’re looking at even more challenges ahead unless we address this head on, which is what we’ve done in this roadmap.
MS. LEAVITT: Okay, thank you. Operator, we will now take some questions.
Q Yeah, hi. This is Leo Shane from Military Times. Can you guys hear me?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I can hear you, Leo.
Q Okay, wonderful. I was wondering if you could walk us through those -- I think you said 10 recommendations. And is there anything in there that deals with lethal means, gun control -- things of that sort?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, thank you, Leo. Yeah, I can briefly go through because I want to make sure you all can ask a few questions.
So I mentioned the national public health campaign. That’s one of the recommendations. We’re also looking at prioritizing suicide surveillance and research that focuses on a unique combination of those factors that I talked about -- more of a tailored focus effort. We’re looking at promoting foundational changes to the way the research is conducted; that’s another recommendation. And each one of these has pieces, obviously, underneath.
We’re also looking to develop effective partnerships across government agencies and nongovernmental entities; encourage employers and academic institutions to provide and integrate comprehensive mental health and wellness practices -- we already have some work going on there; provide and promote comprehensive suicide prevention training across professions -- it doesn’t exist, and we need to do that; identify, evaluate, and promote community-based models -- I talked about that a bit; increase implementation of programs focused on lethal means safety.
So here’s your question, Leo: It is built into the recommendations. We want to increase programs that focus on lethal means safety. We know -- the research is clear that, if we can put in time and space between someone who is considering taking their own life and that act, that we can build in that delay that can lead to a number of things.
And so this effort is focused across lethal means -- not just firearms, but absolutely firearms, poison, bridges -- all variety of methods that people use to die by suicide. We’re focusing on safe storage.
We know that our veterans -- many of our veterans are gun owners. We know that there are good partnerships and efforts underway. We’ve been talking with different associations, firearm associations, gun shop owners to look at encouraging the education around the importance of recognizing signs, indicators, and encouraging people in all variety of different ways -- working with law enforcement officials and, as I said, gun owners themselves and associations -- so that we encourage safe storage and all variety of mechanisms.
What we don’t want to do is -- especially with our veterans, who are avid hunters and collectors -- in any way, shape, or form is do anything else that would make them less likely to get help.
Q Okay. So just to be clear, there wouldn’t be any new restrictions, but the elevation of those programs and those issues?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Absolutely. We’ve heard loud and clear from our MSOs and our VSOs. We’ve worked across this entire year, working with them, ensuring them that our focus is on encouraging -- and some of our VSOs have been -- I know them all very well, as you know, and some of them have been amazing in pushing out information around these issues already, and they’ve committed to work with us to do even more.
But, yes, it’s about getting the information, education, and programs in place in communities and with our veterans, with our DOD partners, as well. So we’re not just working on the VA side; we’re also working with our DOD colleagues because (inaudible) family members, et cetera.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And just to underscore, the focus, again, is on reaching these groups and communicating to them so there’s cultural change, so that there is buy-in to these ideas. It’s not on mandating or taking people’s weapons away. We heard a lot of concerns from folks: “Oh, if I go to VA and tell them I’ve got mental health problems, my gun will be taken away or my firearm will be taken away.”
Veterans, you know, are passionate about their weapons for their self-protection, for hunting, for all sorts of purposes. And we don’t want to be a problem there. And we also want to engage a wide variety of partners. We want to engage, you know, the Second Amendment rights groups and other folks to really focus is on suicide, to help us solve this problem, because it will not be solved without people voluntarily engaging in a solution here.
Q Hi, this is Lauren Clason with CQ Roll Call. I just was wondering if you could walk through some of the legislative proposals. And do any of those include putting more care in the private sector, considering that that is a point of contention with Democrats?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, as I mentioned, our job, my job, and the job of PREVENTS this past year has not been to promote or endorse any specific legislation, but rather look at and be an advisor and subject-matter expert as conversations are happening around what legislation looks like that could be valuable, helpful, critical.
And so the proposal that you’ll see when you have access to all the materials is really the ideal: What do we need? What does that look like?
And so I’ll let [senior administration official] answer specifically what the administration might be looking to support or promote. But our focus in PREVENTS is really to look at across opportunities for legislation that could bring additional resources into communities. And that would include, absolutely, organizations that provide care.
Another thing that we need to move away from is assuming that clinical care is the only piece of this effort; it’s not, and it can’t be. I’m a psychologist. I can tell you there are not enough mental health professionals. And if we look to that as the only solution that’s trying to put more mental health professionals where there are people who struggling, we’re not going to get there. So we have to look at a more expanded perspective, which we are. And we have a lot of partners who are in agreement, including the VA.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I would underscore, kind of, what my colleague has said. We have lots of friends and allies on the Hill. This is a major issue; it’s a major focus. It’s a bipartisan focus. And we’re working hard to make sure some good legislation comes out. And I think you’ll see, as [senior administration official] pointed out, what the hope would be for that. But we are working hard on what’s on the Hill to make it even better and to make it something that could be a victory for the House, the Senate, the President, and for veterans, really, at the end of the day.
And as [senior administration official] said, you know, we’re not about minimizing the VA. But so many veterans don’t go to the VA or have any connection to the VA. So I think there’s broad agreement that suicide prevention services, provided by outside groups and grants that could be given to groups, is supported. And that’s where our heart is that we could support, across the spectrum, veterans who are seeking help and psychological care.
Q Hi, thanks for doing this. Kristina Anderson, AWPS News. So my question would be focused on the nonprofits that you might want to partner with. Will there -- do you have already in place a way -- a framework to which they can engage? Something that -- say, criteria or some specifics that you’re looking for, in terms of capacity and philosophy and that sort of thing? Can you talk a little bit about those details? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Absolutely. Thank you. That’s a great question. And, yes, I come from a nonprofit space, and I’m very, very familiar with and have tremendous affection for and attachment to many of the organizations that are out there doing amazing work.
So we’re doing several things. We already have been visiting states. Before COVID, we had visited five states. And now, we’re actually starting, at the end of this month, we’re -- because we can’t go out visiting the way we had, and so we’re going to be doing virtual state visits. We’re visiting Indiana at the end of June, and then -- and we’ve already been invited to Idaho. And so our plan is we would be visiting every state and the territories by the time we conclude the next two years.
The goal of that is to listen, learn, share. We’re going to have toolkits available, nonprofits, and veterans organizations, and communities. We’re working very closely with the governors’ and mayors’ challenges that are now already being supported by government efforts through SAMSHA in partnership with the VA. And as we’ve been talking about -- you know, the potential legislation down the road, as [senior administration official] said and as I mentioned in my remarks, we’re really looking for collaboration and coordination and collective impacts.
I’ve been speaking at a number of forums to non-profits -- VSOs, MSOs, and other non-profits that support. So I think this message is getting out there. You know, if you want to help, there will be ways for organizations to plug in.
We’re doing state proclamations, and so that will be another way for nonprofit organizations to lead the charge to be part of that, which brings then other opportunities. We’re partnered with corporations who want to help. They want to help, both in terms of potential funding to match some of what we’re going to be looking at from the government, and also to lend other resources.
I’ve been very concerned, as soon as COVID hit, we actually did a listening tour and met with 29 organizations, nonprofits all, asking them -- they all serve veterans and military communities -- asking them how are they being affected by COVID, in terms of the needs that they’re seeing, but also the resources they have. Are they concerned about their sustainability?
So we’re having those conversations, and we have great convening power in our office. And because of our relationship with the White House and the VA, to bring these groups together and to bring philanthropy together to talk about how we address these gaps and feel these needs.
So, thank you. I love that question.
Q Hi. This is Ben Kesling with the Wall Street Journal. I just want to understand better what the actual, tangible deliverables from all this are. Are there any executive orders or executive actions that the President is going to sign on this to, like, improve SEP and TAMP, so that there’s more veterans going into the VA system? Is there anything that Secretary Wilkie is going to be announcing? Is there any actual legislation that somebody like Senator Moran or Representative Takano is going to be rolling out? Is there any coordination done on this? Or is it just plans to look at all these recommendations for the future?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So, hi, Ben. Thanks. This is a massive coordinated effort. There’s already been tremendous work to set up the groups that will drive all of the recommendations. These 10 recommendations are the overarching recommendations, the priorities that I mentioned.
There’s several things in place. We’re going to be launching an ex-challenge later this summer with -- in partnership with the VA to create an opportunity for groups to come together to create a technology-based piece of this solution. There is the proclamations that I mentioned. There are the -- public health, which is a massive public health campaign that lots of funding resources will be going into that.
And we will be taking all of the specific recommendations and working those with the agencies over the next year with action officers that are going to be provided by each of those agencies. So all of this has already been negotiated, worked out. Working plans are in place -- evaluation, implementation.
[Senior administration official], do you want to add anything to that?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Absolutely. Yeah. So -- you know, as you know, the President has been extremely focused on veterans. This is the second EO. This is a promise fulfilled, basically. I mean, this is the second EO regarding veterans’ mental health. He did a transition EO, which was seminal, and then he did 13861, which was the PREVENTS EO, which called for this. And this is the completion and fulfillment of what’s called for in that EO.
As [senior administration official] mentioned, we’ll be working on the grand challenge for VA. We’re working hand in glove with our partners on the Hill on legislation. There’s legislation right now regarding suicide prevention grants. We alluded to earlier on the question from CQ. And, yeah, absolutely.
So we’re continuing to march forward. It’s the number one clinical priority of the VA. It’s a major priority of the President. It’s a number one priority, I believe, of the veterans committees on the Hill. So, I think we’re going to see movements in the next few months. So --
Q You said you’re a Marine and you know that -- you know that (inaudible), that when you come out, there’s not always a good path from active duty to veteran and getting into the VA system. And you also said that, you know, a number of veterans who die by suicide are not in the VHA pipeline. Has the President talked about changing, along with Secretary Esper and Secretary Wilkie, changing the way that transition happens and working to upend the SEP and TAMP systems so that veterans are more readily go into the VHA system and we streamline this?
The past administration, there was a bit of a change in SEP and TAMP, but it probably didn’t go far enough. Is there any talk of actually, instead of just talking about some of these changes, doing some of these changes?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Sure. And I think, you know, if you look at that transition EO, it talked about the mental health for the year after. And I think, you know, we’re covering quite a few vets with mental health issues after their transition and certainly continue to explore that as a major focus.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah, and the transition that (inaudible) that you mentioned, we’re working closely with that team that -- and that’s a DOD-VA partnership, as you know, following veterans -- actually, reaching in to service members the year before they're leaving and in the year after to outreach, to engage.
Simultaneously, the VA, they're getting ready to -- have been already been working on launching their suicide prevention program 2.0, which has a lot more focus on outreach too. So I think, Ben, that there’s a lot that’s already built in that is changing that process -- absolutely -- a year before and a year after. And then we’re working with them in terms of where they head, where they end up, what communities they go to. We've never done anything like that before to try to track, outreach, engage as they're coming out.
Q Okay, but no mandates or specific changes to that program to ensure that veterans get into the VHA pipeline when they're leaving the service?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We will continue to look at policies, obviously. But again, that executive order that’s already been out there and has been working, they’ve been working these issues and we’re coordinating with them.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And, Ben, I’d also -- you know, obviously the VHA pipeline is important for veterans who need care and want to go to VA, but I also wouldn’t diminish the fact that some veterans, you know, just don’t want to go to VA. They want other services. They want other options. They want to go into those communities in a different way. And so we’re looking at the broad spectrum, certainly.
But I think with that transition EO and other things at the VA now, we are seeking additional mental health coverage and continue to work towards that.
Q Okay. Thank you.
Q Yeah. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for doing this. This is Owen Jensen with EWTN News. There’s a -- as you all know, there’s a veteran crisis hotline, a suicide hotline -- 1-800-273-8255. How is -- have you been able to gauge the success of that? And how does this executive order impact that, if any? That’s number one.
And number two, there are a lot of veterans who live in rural areas -- Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, et cetera. What's the plan to reach those who may have -- who may lack access to county veteran service offices, who, you know, live far away from major cities? Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. Thanks. Those are both great questions. Yes, we work very closely with the Veterans Crisis Line. The Veterans Crisis Line has been very effective in terms of its response rate. And I don’t have those numbers because -- with me today. It’s a slightly different lane, in terms of tracking the numbers. But they’ve seen an increase and have moved very effectively during the COVID crisis to respond to veterans in crisis. And you probably are aware there is also conversation moving forward around the 988, which would be a national suicide response and mental health crisis line similar to 911.
So, yes, we’re working with all of that very closely. We work very closely with the Suicide Prevention program and the Veterans Crisis Line about how can we ensure, as we move forward with this effort, that we are connecting all of the dots so that more and more people who are in need have access to those crisis lines, that they know about them. But the success and effectiveness, I think, has been very -- very well documented in reports coming out of VA.
Your question about rural veterans -- again, very important. I'm form rural America. My father was a veteran. I grew up in rural California. No high school in my community. So I know about rural communities. And we are absolutely intently focused on -- again, that’s why I said we can't just look to clinicians to be the answer because (inaudible). We have to ensure that we’re working at the community level.
I mentioned here we’re going to be going, virtually, to Indiana and Idaho. It’s to talk with organizations and to learn and to ensure that we create toolkits and build best practices, guidelines. The VA is also doing really good work on some of their outreach over this next iteration of the Suicide Prevention program, reaching into communities and focusing on efforts that are peer-based, in addition to clinically focused, so that we have both the clinical focus, the peer focus, the public health approach. So, absolutely, it’s critical.
And we need to look at things like technology-based tools that can deliver mental healthcare, whether it’s telehealth apps, but we need to make sure they're good apps. So we have some programs and efforts, now working with universities, looking at that. And we have to look at bandwidth, because not all rural communities, not all tribal communities. And so, fortunately for the VA, there are some great partnerships with telecommunications companies that are interested and already doing some work to help in those areas.
Q Thank you.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: And just to underscore that, there is some evidence that COVID, of course, has increased the throughput into those hotlines. There’s an emergency distress hotline run by SAMHSA that saw 1,000 percent increase in texts into that hotline in April 2020 compared with April 2019. So there’s some significant things we’re seeing out there in the community.
And, of course, rural veterans, as you all know, die of higher -- die by suicide at a higher rate than those in urban environments. And so they're certainly a focus of the administration, as are all forgotten Americans.
Q Thank you.
OPERATOR: Would you like to continue taking questions?
MS. LEAVITT: [Senior administration officials], do you feel like you’ve made all the points you need to?
Okay, great. Well, thank you. Doctor, do you have something to add?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah, I think it’s been a great conversation. I really appreciate the questions. It’s helped us really share more information. Obviously, there’s a lot here and more will be coming out. But thank you again for covering this.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, thank you everyone. This will conclude our call. Again, both the opening remarks and the question-and-answer portion were on background to senior administration officials.
Thank you, everyone. Have a good day.
END 9:37 A.M. EDT
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