Suicide Experts visit Capitol Hill

On Wednesday, September 14, the National Center for Veterans Studies and the American Psychological Association hosted two congressional briefings to discuss military and veteran's suicide. The day began with a members-only roundtable in the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Veterans Affairs, Subcommittee on Health.

Members of Congress discuss suicide prevention with experts.

In all, six bipartisan members of Congress (Reps. Bilirakis [R-FL], Buerkle [R-NY], Carnahan [D-MO], Michaud [D-ME], Roe [R-TN], Walz [D-MN]), engaged in over an hour of dialogue about military and veterans suicide prevention with key experts in the field. The experts on the briefing panel included M. David Rudd, PhD, ABPP, University of Utah; Craig Bryan, PsyD, ABPP, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio; and David Jobes, PhD, ABPP, The Catholic University of America and Janet Kemp, RN, PhD, Department of Veterans Affairs.

The day culminated with an afternoon briefing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs for Capitol Hill staff, government officials and the general public entitled Reducing Suicide Risk in Military Service Members and Veterans. The overflow crowd of nearly 80 attendees heard in-depth presentations from each of the above mentioned panelists. The hour long briefing concluded with an engaging question and answer session with the audience.

Kemp, Bryan, Jobes, and Rudd discuss suicide prevention with members of Congress.