To ensure veterans with mental health crises have immediate access to trained coordinators, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will establish a 24-hour, national suicide prevention hot line. Scheduled to begin operations by August 31, 2007, the hotline will be based at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center in New York State. Staffed by mental health professionals, it will operate seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

In addition to staffing the hot line, the suicide prevention coordinators will take part in training clinicians and non-clinicians on warning signs for suicide, guide veterans into care, and work within facilities to identify veterans at risk for suicide.

VA’s Canandaigua facility is already a VA center of excellence focused on suicide prevention, mental health education and research. The Department recently announced plans to provide suicide prevention coordinators at each of its 153 medical centers, joining more than 9,000 mental health professionals.
For more information please visit www.va.gov.