Improving Veterans’ Mental Health Care Aim of Tester Bill

Senator introduced BRAVE Act to improve veterans' mental health care workforce, infrastructure, and services, especially for spinal cord-injured and women veterans

Continuing his push to improve veterans' mental health care, Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester recently introduced legislation to strengthen the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) mental health care workforce, infrastructure, and services, especially for spinal cord-injured and women veterans.

The Senator's Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement (BRAVE) Act would help make sure no veteran falls through the cracks when receiving health care from VA by requiring the Department to take the experience of women veterans into account when conducting early suicide prevention interventionsand providing access to Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Programs for veterans with spinal cord injuries or disorders. It would also extend the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program, a critical grant providing funding for local suicide prevention organizations, established by Tester's Hannon Act.

"Getting our veterans the quality mental health care they earned starts with ensuring VA has the workforce and physical infrastructure in place to deliver it," said Tester. "It also means making sure the Department is tailoring mental health care to each population of veterans it serves. This bill will help move the needle forward by strengthening VA's mental health care staffing and infrastructure at Vet Centers, bolstering mental health care for spinal cord-injured veterans,and making sure VA takes the experiences of women veterans-specifically survivors of military sexual trauma and intimate partner violence-into account when providing early suicide prevention interventions."

The BRAVE Act was drafted following a recent report from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) focused on women veterans' mental health care, which found that VA's REACH VET initiative was not considering additional risk factors specific to the experiences of women veterans. To fix this, Tester worked with DAV to include a provision in his legislation to ensure VA considers additional risk factors facing women veterans, specifically survivors of military sexual trauma and intimate partner violence, when providing lifesaving mental health care.

Since 2022, Tester has secured $6.45 million in funding for Montana organizations working to end veteran suicide through the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program. His BRAVE Act will extend the grant program an additional three years and increase the maximum amount for each grant from $750,000 to $1,000,000. The grant program was originally authorized through 2025.

Tester's BRAVE Act will break down access barriers to Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Programs for spinal cord-injured veterans and help ensure that Vet Centers across the country have access to the resources they need to serve veterans, servicemembers, and their families by requiring VA make improvements to their physical infrastructure, technology systems, outreach efforts, and staffing. There are more than 300 Vet Centers across the country, including five Vet Centers in Montana with locations in Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell, Missoula, and Helena.

Veterans Service Organizations across the country support the Senator's legislative efforts to improve mental health care services.

"The VFW supports the Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement Act of 2024 that would enhance mental health services for veterans through improvements in workforce qualifications, infrastructure, and targeted outreach at the Department of Veterans Affairs," said VFW National Legislative Associate Director Meggan Coleman. "The VFW believes this bill offers a variety of important enhancements to VA mental health services. We are pleased to see that the bill includes a review of VA's suicide prevention outreach programs for women veterans and expanded access to care for veterans with spinal cord injuries. We thank Senator Tester for introducing this bill and we look forward to its passage into law."

"This bill is a positive and much-needed step forward to ensuring the best mental health care for women veterans," said DAV National Legislative Director Joy Ilem. "DAV's recent women veterans report demonstrates the pressing need for gender-tailored approaches to suicide prevention and mental health care and we are grateful to Senator Tester for introducing this critical legislation and continuing to work with DAV to keep our promise to our nation's women veterans."

"PVA proudly supports S. 5210, the Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health and Engagement (BRAVE) Act of 2024. This legislation would help to ensure that the VA is better equipped to serve the unique needs of increasing numbers of women veterans enrolling in VA," said PVA Chief Policy Officer Heather Ansley. "It would also begin addressing the barriers veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D) encounter in accessing residential treatment programs. A veteran with additional nursing needs due to disabilities like those related to SCI/D is unable to properly access residential treatment. VA should be equipped and staffed to address the needs of all patients, and the BRAVE Act is a first step in addressing this disparity."

"Improving the quality of care and services available to veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs is one of Wounded Warrior Project's highest legislative priorities," said WWP Vice President of Government and Community Relations Jose Ramos. "We applaud the introduction of the Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement Act and its focus on important areas like Vet Center counseling, outreach to women veterans, and renewal of the critical Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program. We appreciate Senator Tester's continued advocacy and support for our nation's veterans and are hopeful that this legislation passes before the end of the 118th Congress."

Tester has been a leading advocate for expanding veterans' access to life-saving mental health care. In 2020, he championed the Hannon Act to bolster VA's mental health workforce and increase rural veterans' access to care through alternative and local treatment options. In 2022, the Tester-backed Support The Resilience of Our Nation's Great (STRONG) Veterans Act - to strengthen veterans' access to life-saving tools like the Veterans Crisis Line, expand mental health care options, and support mental health research at VA - was signed into law.

Continuing his efforts this Congress to improve veterans' mental health care, the Senator is spearheading the bipartisan Not Just a Number Act to require VA to take a more comprehensive look at factors that best prevent veteran suicide, and the Making Community Care Work for Veterans Actto improve veterans' access to lifesaving residential treatment programs for mental health and substance use disorder.