The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Monday that veterans in acute suicidal crisis can now go to any VA or non-VA healthcare facility for emergency healthcare at no cost, including inpatient or crisis residential care for up to 30 days, and outpatient care for up to 90 days.
Veterans do not need to be enrolled in VA health care to use this benefit, which took effect Jan. 17. The USDVA says the expansion will increase access to acute suicide care for up to 9 million veterans who are not currently enrolled in the VA system.
Eligible individuals include veterans who were discharged or released from active duty after more than 24 months of active service, former members of the armed forces, including reserve service members, who served more than 100 days under a combat exclusion or in support of a contingency operation either directly or by operating an unmanned aerial vehicle from another location, or former members of the armed forces who were victims of sexual harassment or sexual assault.
Will Geschke is a multimedia reporter for The News-Review. He can be reached at wgeschke@nrtoday.com.
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.