The Disabled American Veterans organization is voting on its legislative priorities during its annual convention in Phoenix Tuesday. Improving mental health for women veterans is on the agenda.
The DAV says one in three women veterans has experienced military sexual trauma, or MST, which encompasses sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Naomi Mathis is combat-disabled Air Force veteran and Assistant National Legislative Director for the DAV. She said DAV’s research found the algorithm responsible for flagging high suicide risk doesn’t screen for MST.
“The VA has told us they're working on an update to that algorithm, but we will continue to highlight this fixable issue until it is actually implemented,” she said.
Earlier this year, the DAV released its first report focused on women veterans’ mental health. It classes suicide prevention as its highest clinical priority. The report found:
The report found:
- Women veterans are two times as likely to attempt suicide as their male counterparts.
- Firearms were used in 51.7% of women veterans’ suicides, nearly three times higher than for nonveteran women.
- Rural veterans face a 20% increased risk for suicide and are less likely to receive mental health and gender-specific health care services compared with urban women peers.
- Nearly 1 in 5 women veterans using VA primary care reported experiencing intimate partner violence in the past year, an experience strongly associated with suicidal ideation.
- Veterans using VA maternity care are more likely than the general population to have one or more mental health diagnoses, including PTSD, which can put them at greater risk for suicidal ideation.
- Menopause has been shown to raise the risk for depression in U.S. women twofold and corresponds to the highest rates of suicide in women.
- The proportion of women veterans using VA health care with a service-connected disability increased from 48% in fiscal year (FY) 2000 to 73% in FY 2020.
Since 2005, the VA reports a 154% increase in the number of women veterans accessing VA mental health care.
The DAV report includes more than 50 policy and legislative recommendations to improve mental health care for 650,000 women currently using the VA system.
In 2020, the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act authorized 988 as the National Suicide Prevention Hotline. Veterans can call 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line or text 838255 or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct the percentage of increased risk for suicide that rural veterans face.
