>> good morning, everybody. thank you all for attending this briefing sponsored by senator joe donnelly this morning, along with the american foundation for suicide prevention, the nation's

leading nonprofit dedicated to preventing suicide through education, advocacy, and research. it is my pleasure today to introduce three distinguished panelists that are going to talk about the military and veteran suicide prevention and mental health issues in our country. it is our goal to reduce suicide 20% by 2025. and in order to do this we are going to have to address issues around suicide prevention that plate or veteran and military communities. currently 22 veterans as an estimate by by suicide every day, and veterans comprise an estimated 20% of suicide in this country every year. on the panel today we have yochi dreazen, the author of the invisible front, love and loss and an endless era of war. yochi is the managing editor for

news that foreign policy reruns its news coverage and oversees a team of 13 reporters. his book was picked as one of "new york times" most notable books in 2014 and one of amazon's best books of 2014. he has made more than 12 lengthy trips to iraq and afghanistan and has spent a total of nearly four years on the ground in the two countries. mostly doing front-line combat embeds. he has reported for more than 20 countries, including pakistan, russia, israel, china, japan, turkey, morocco and saudi arabia your bill rausch is the political director at iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. as political director bill supports the development of their annual policy agenda and advocacy campaigns through trust relationships with veteran

service organizations and government agencies. bill is a former army major who served 17 months in iraq, it has broad experience working with veterans and veterans issues from his work on several major political campaigns to serving as team red, white and blue chapter captain for his local community in alexandria, virginia. bill has appeared on "nbc nightly news," c-span's "washington journal," and msnbc's coverage of memorial day 2015. class with major general mark graham, he is the senior director at rutgers national call center and director of vets4warriors. general graham has lost two sons to two different battles. one to suicide and other to an ied in iraq. he currently heads the rutgers u. the agency call center and is the director of vets4warriors which provide veterans with 24/7

confidential stigma free peer support by veterans to active duty, national guard and reserve service members, veterans, retirees and their families and caregivers. we thank you all for coming today and out like to introduce senator donnelly who, as senator from indiana, introduced his first piece of legislation when he came to the senate, that jacob sexson military suicide prevention act has been awarded the allies and actions were from the american foundation for suicide prevention is a champion of veterans and military mental health and suicide prevention issues. senator. >> thank you all for being here. and to our panel, thank you so much. we really appreciate it. anti-john and trevor, thank you. i guess the best way to start

off with the to talk about the incredible dedication and hard work of all of our men and women who serve. and of the love and devotion of the people in this country for all of them. then to do a little bit about a national guard unit in evansville indiana my home state. with our national guard was serving, there in iraq in 2008. and extraordinarily difficult circumstances, and when they talk to each other they said he had each other's back. that's what we do, we had each other's back. there was a group that was in a truck, one was the driver, one was the lookup the major everybody would say. another was a navigator. ever all work and a truck together. and for a year they had each other's lives i being each othes

hands, the most intense effort you could imagine. day came home to evansville and the streets were lined with people cheering when our national guard troop got home. and they did, and they began to live their lives begin back home in indiana. and from 2011 through 2015, four of the members of the national guard group have taken their lives. and it is heartbreaking and it has to end. and so that's what these wonderful people and all of you are trying to help us do. in 2014 come as my first piece of legislation as a senator, we were able to pass that jacob sexson military suicide prevention act. what it did, jake was a wonderful, wonderful young man who serve in iraq and afghanistan, whose family and he helped provide coats and other things to the kids in afghanistan when it got cold.

at jake had an unbelievable choices here tonight and that's what military custody. incredibly difficult choices, life or death one side or the other. and came back home on r&r in afghanistan. when he got back home, took his life. and also told his dad before he went on the tour, he said, dad, i just don't feel right, something doesn't, something doesn't feel like it's working. and it's not just those who are in combat, as you all know. its people back home as well with the stresses of finance and family trying to balance the national guard and a career in the family and the financial stressors. so we want to make sure we are there for all of them. 's with the jacob sexton military suicide prevention act did was provide an annual mental health assessment for each and

every service member, active duty, guard, reserve. and then provided privacy protection so that it was the chance for them to be able to seek this help and to be able to do it with privacy. this past year, and we're hoping we'll get past today, you know, god willing, in the end the day, is big care package which is okay, we been able to provide an angel mental health assessment, now have to find the providers to do it. das-- ndaa. that they can go to places like the military family research institute at purdue, and they are all over the country, give the special training needed so that when our service member comes in, or guard member, or reserve member, and our vets, but they know this person

understands the special challenges they face. they get what's called the vet friendly service member friendly certification. and there's an online registry. that our vets and service things can go online and go this person gets it, somebody i can talk to and feel comfortable with. and then for the department of defense folks, that they take additional training in suicide risk recognition so they can start to understand. and we also are trying to add additional physicians assistants so that we have more front-line providers to help our men and women. you know, our guard members, think of this, when they finish up they can go to the va. they are not officially allowed to. they can go to military treatment facilities. -- they can't -- they often don't know what other available services are out there, and so

oftentimes they feel like they are by themselves. there is a transition that takes place when you go from one to the other. we find ourselves with the challenges with a formula as well, which is what we're also going to work on. what that means is the formulary is so you're in dod, the department of defense, in that system come you're struggling and so they give you prescription still and take care of yourself. then you become a veteran and it completely changed what you are on because x, y and z else not covered by the va. the va covers half, gee, h. something you feel comfortable with, something is working for you, it completely changed and we have to make this seem as different to make the handoff of seamless. we have to recognize, we've been a nation at war for such a long time. and in many ways young people liked or guard members come home

and there's a complete disconnect to the community that loves them so much, to the world that used to be a part of, but before they went and then when they served, they see things and deal with things that completely changed their lives put at the incredible dependence of the other people out on you for their entire life, you are in a nation that everyday you're under incredible stress, and our panel does much better than i do, and then you come home and it's just different. we want to be there to help, but we not only want to be there to help, we have an obligation to be there to help. to make sure that if someone has a question, there's someone there to provide an answer. that they feel comfortable that there is no stigma, that educating sideways, they know who they can call. they have the opportunity to

talk to somebody. that's our job. that's what we need to do. we lost over 400 young men and women last year just in the military to suicide. we lost over 20 veterans yesterday, the day before, the day before, and the day before. we want to get it to zero. and so trevor and john, thank you your to our panelists, thank you so much. thanks to your sons have served, for all your family has sacrificed. and we are incredibly grateful for your help in trying to provide answers. thank you very much. thank you. [applause] >> and thank you again, senator donnelly, for your comments and your true leadership in the united states senate to prevent suicide among our veterans, military personnel, and provide

support to their families. next like to introduce yochi dreazen. >> good morning. is pleasure to be with you on this rainy, rainy day. senator heitkamp your leadership on this is a wonderful thing to see. i wish that you are frankly not so often standing by yourself on an issue that matters as much as this one does. i want to talk briefly about issued to frame it all up and over to my friend mark. and 2009 i began to hear from friends who had come back that they would look in america not recognize them so prevent a military friends i've met over the years in iraq and afghanistan, that they could see in the eyes of the wife with her husband that they were scared with the biggest in the eyes of the children that they were scared, that they themselves felt ugly, failed to think about what they've seen on what they have done. avenue for change but didn't

quite know how or why or how to change it. some of them over facebook over e-mail or by phone begin to say they were thinking of killing himself but they just didn't want to live in the way it was living. they did want to keep feeling the weight of the. a couple and did he kill himself and do so shattering on a personal level. begin setting aside any any journalistic digitized iunknown digitized they've been with in both countries, guys who admitted back physically unscathed for the most part. but he came back with something inside of all the same with the dark same with the darkest they didn't have to deal with. if their guard or reserve is, there was no support structure. as flawed, for the guard and reserve there's nothing. so they came back into the military that wasn't ready to help, a civilian world that was more disconnected. and taken back in enormous numbers. in 2009 up until 2000 the military suicide rate had been steadily rising. the minister response was we had

a problem but usability is just as bad of a problem. that was literally factually true. if you look at the demographics, if you look at men between 18-25, generally speaking the demographic of the military, the suicide rates were rising about the same rates. the numbers were roughly the same. 2009 horrifyingly important you. that's a first year with the military raid exceeded that of the military --

and more people died in car crashes been anything but illness. that was the case quite literally from when the first model t rolled off with a similar line at the ford plant. 2010 at that change. there's another momentous year. i was the year the civilian suicide rate in the number of people killing themselves exceeded the number dying in car crashes. think about that. all of us are watching local news reading the local paper, there are those horrible stories that they crashed on the highway. we see those and we shudder. but when you're seeing that, that same day more people, not military, more people total, americans are killing and are dying in those car

crashes. that is a staggering thing. i want to close with that because we all the military more than simply saying thank you for your service. we all the military more than try to understand that is the military that reflects those. we all the military the knowledge that we as a country understand what it as a part of our country is going through, that we as a coach understand what those who serve are going through. whether their guard, reserve, active duty, it doesn't matter. the people who either wear or have worn our uniform, or you8s÷ are fighting or have fought in our wars. afghanistan as we know is not ending. we thought it was and it's not. iraq with those overcome still going. even when these income this is the most chilling thing i found end. manifest themselves decades after personn8vñ service will nt end. the suicide rate is not going to stop.

silent, the suicide rate will that's notóvv,ñ árue. ads-b can go on for decades. someone can be relatively fine for decades and in 30 years from now something changes and they take their own life. we are seeing that. for longtime people who kill themselves were high school and collegel&!

family to me. you listen to mark, listen to bill, keep that inz7qlj mind tht these are not people speaking @only about,÷ affordability. they're speaking about ourçèd÷ country. i will stop there. and the legislation you proposed, and wes0.ú÷ hope manyy rally our budgeting. and american foundation fotqrnñ suicide prevention all you're doing each and every day as rausch andl the work in so many others of you out there every day

we've got every air cover from vietnam. we've got all the bases covered around the clock to connect you to somebody who can talk to you and work with you, connected to

local resources. i often say there's a lot of organizations out there. we are not looking for any rise out of your rise a bowl. we want to be the soy sauce and all the rice bowls. we want to be out there all over so people can know we have a 24 hour day seven days a week call center. you can go anytime day or night. you are never alone. you never have to feel like we connect you to local resources if you are struggling, whatever you need we would like to connect into the propositions them care. about as well to get allocated a couple of examples. we had a veteran in a hotel recently, a motel struggling. we normally don't do minicrisis calls. we transfer those to the crisis line. but we can do crisis calls as well. we had a veteran called recently struggling hard come after a long conversation and one of the clinicians getting involved, they ñalked to this veteran and

helped convince him and decided they were right. he went outside ca, block his weapon in the trunk of his car because that's really say place had. they been contacted local police that his agreement. he agreed he needed help after they talked him through it. a police officer came, took him to the emergency room. from emergency room. from there they took him to a be a hospital where they admitted him -- at the hospital. he asked the police officer can you call us back went to see. the police officer called back, and guess what? the police officer was a veteran. he got it. just one e,ample. another as a grandmother who called worried about her grandson who was in rio. he wrote her a note on facebook and said he's really struggling. so his grandmother found out, call three or four other place at the old one of our peers who started making connections and got to the army and others got hold of this young guy, cheney committed a great job and a great job and to give him, i can

help. he sent another note to his3 grandma and said please don't do that again. but everyday no matter what the challenge is, they are there. we follow up. you call us once can we follow as long as it takes. a couple fighters have been calling us for over a year saying, they call us and we call them back and they say i just want to know somebody is going we feel like one of the things we offer is the safety net. they need a safety net. they are in transition. transitions are hard. we hire over 46 veterans to do this. they are not volunteers. we pay them so we hire, train veterans to do this great work to help others. all the time around the clock. prevention is key. we've got to do this early. let's not wait until they're in crisis to help. let's offer áo help for the the gap and help them as they

transition, without a military or from active guard service back to normal drill status. there are so many times when they are out there that they can fall through the cracks. we want to be there for them. i wish my boys had a phone number to call. i certainly wish my son kevin had before he took his own life. we can eliminate this statement in america, i know we can because i believe in our nation each and every day. i would say before i get off the stage, vets4warriors is here to help, not judge. it is a stigma free. when you walk in the door your enemy a stigma free zone. we are here to help by not judge. whatever they're going through we will help them work through it together the many feel like they are getting hit with a firehose, just firehose or fire hydrant. coming at them with distressed so we break help again. what's the toughest thing you're going through today? how can we help you today? let's work through it together. one at a time, one veteran at a

time, one army, navy, air force, marine corps, servicemen at a time. one family member or caregiver at a time. that's how we solve this, work through it one at a time. i thank you again for afsp for doing this. yochi, thank you again for your great friendshi, build, love you, brother.endshi, thanks to all the veterans for your service and delivers for sticking with them. i in this has always do. because of the brave. and i'll tell you vets4warriors, don't wait. don't wait. call. you are not alone. thank you. [applause] >> i want to start by thanking mark specifically edges assuring your anecdote before i think anyone else.

i know mark because his son-in-ñaw, joe quinn come and i graduated from west point together when we're in baghdad together. joe was at the aid came. and joe joked thatxat the time as your aid that one of two things would happen. he would either marry her or go to jail. we are really glad that is part of the family now and a let's say thank you for that they would've known mark for a while. we also want to thank senator don and your staff. you are a tremendous leader in this space. thank you so much for everything you do to change the culture of the stigma and to promote promoe community and awareness like to do. thank you. to afsp, amazing partners, thank you so much what you do. panel -- and again -- it touches us so much. i just realized i've worn this

high the last three or four times that we spoken on the same panel. it's a red, white and blue and that is probably why i gravitate towards it. what i will detail a couple of stories detroit talk about the po&icy agenda bar nippon towards combating suicide in this country. the first would i want to tell is related to a point someone mentioned a moment ago that this is a problem for our country, not just within the military. i was speaking to a reporter last night about the medal of honor recipients from iraq and afghanistan. the most recent medal of honor recipient, an army captain, was involved in an attack in afghanistan not long ago where a died. i started think about that last night when we debate and mr. think about tk as the most recent friend i've had who has died. a result of these wars.

asked myself was the first person, who was the first person? i started going through a list of names. scott schempp, got his training at fort campbell but i don't think he was the first. no, he wasn't the first. actually the first person in my class, 2010 west point, who died was a cadet who died by suicide before the war started. he was home on christmas leave and he didn't come back and we did know how to talk about it. he's not on our website. if you look at the list of the names of the fallen. so that guy needs to take but two things i'm going to talk about today, committed and culture, described his signature the culture in this country is such when we don't talk about mental health. we don't talk about suicide. one of the amazing things that i personally as an army veteran who left active duty eght years ago and reserves two years ago, so i transition twice, but i love about the legislation the senator has sponsored and it's

going to go out there and i could make a huge impact in the coach of the military is the idea of an annual checkup. i have a young son who is too. he's been to the dentist now twice. very painful visits both times. but i'm betting he's going to go to the dentist every year. it was embedded in the and does part of the goal judge race and. what presidential upon have to do with mental health? it has everything to do with it because in this country the idea of getting a checkup once a year for your mental wellness is foreign to most people. and so when you start to lookq it in that context, and go to bring up mark again, bq(puáq another component, another element of joe quinn and our friendship and relationship was in april of 2007. i was in iraq, had been there for about 10 months. i would be there for about

another seven. i had a wrap on my door and my can commander, john, a dear friend of mine said a coming of the focal. i was was a joke when. it was my thought on the line to tell me that my oldest sister can never served in the military, had died by suicide and should taken her own life. and it got me thinking, wow, how did this happen put your i was i áqq those signs but i didn't know the science. going back to the culture peace, knowing in e family were prepared, no one in my communities where i grew up were unaware what those signs were. for info she did not serve the military, and we talk about that, i think highlights the point that this is a challenge for our entire nation and our country. so when i talk aboñt culture and to talk about community, it truly does, in fact, all of us. i usually ask folks to put this they cannot going to do it

today, but because we are i see that i'm going to ask the folks at home to participate. and that is, ask yourself, i promise you don't have to ration and, i'm talking myself out of ask you to ray sure hand, how many of you know that you love or care about who has died by suicide? think about rá. ask that question to all of us know someone. so why wouldn't we take action? why wouldn't we be more active in our community? why we can educate ourselves to be aware of the signs? it is the situation we can tackle. and so i could talk about the idea, policy agenda. powerful, we've worked tireless on and we work with partners on the hill. vets4warriors, others. but when you start to look at the policy component, good policy changes culture while leveraging community. that's what it's all about and that's why we were really proud to support and pass the clay hunt safe act.

clay was a marine. he tried tireless to get into the va, and he couldn't receive the help that he needed. i think about play and then i think about those who are not as driven and as motivated a play was who have a even more difficult time trying to get over those barriers that exist. and veterans can i givñ their privilege to have a va to go to. sector as well as the va and i know that barziers to entry are different for each sector, but i do privilege i can go to the va and talk to folks about some off the, i've experienced that is unique to war. but also think about my sister and to think about other folks, the guardsman in indiana, the reservists that i served with who don't have the access to the be a necessary and to go back into these small towns and big cities across the country and

they feel alone. i felt alone in a very different way when i left the reserves to get on active duty. i was worse or better do it was very uniquely different because i was already in the exact same community i have been serving in. i left and that i, i to say neighbors and yet you still have that aloneness and that sense of calm or lack of community i should say. and so i think in closing from my perspective, tomorrow is veterans day. we are proud to have over 150 acres across the country to marker where individual come together across the country. and tomorrow is veterans day but every day we should be striving to build community and change the culture we should think about resources like vets4warriors. if you haven't read his book, read the book. i will give it to a gift to my pa)ents. i've read multiple times even knowing the story, mark, if you

and your family. educate yourself, get active in your community and ask how can you help. this is a problem that affects the entire country and we can be donnelly has been a leader in d.c. we can be lived in arkansas alexandria, new jersey from all across the country. that's what i want to leave anyone with is asked resolve, what can you do personally? when you think back and raise your hand or you didn't raise your hand, we all know someone who has been touched by this. we'll know someone we care and love bout. there is something we can do about the south want to thank you can do afsp breathe been an amazing part of and thank you to my friends for sharing your story and allowing me to share mine. [applause] >> yochi, mark and bill, i can't thank you enough for being here awe every time i see you all talk about this subject. at this point i would like to turn over to the audience

briefly if there are any questions. [inaudible] >> suicide prevention and -- sorry. and mental health and veterans. i don't think i was addressed. >> so that a(urjz was their clay hunt safe act. thanks for bring that the. so that bill did a few things. first and foremost was the first bill passed by this congress addressing mental health in the military and veteran population against them after clay hunt who is a proud marine who served in iraq and afghanistan. one of the things they did is to they provide an incentive for mental health professionals to go to the va. it allowed the va up to i believe about 30-$40,000 in student debt repayment that would help them recruit mental-health professionals into

the va. ..

>> for all of american history really, presidential letter of con doll gens went to those who died in service. those who were kill master's degree war, those who died in training accident but not to those who died by suicide, and president obama changed that policy. so he was the first president to start writing letters and condolence. and i profile one in the book, but for the family that was a massive kindness because they would look to other family who is plos to them they felt the same hole. mourn the same level, and a grief that won't ever fade.

that letter from the white house said in that case could have been a daughter, a wife and served with honor and we as a country recognize that. this i believe was 2009. i believe 2009. >> have a public hearing act, was there anything else that you want congress to do to address this? >> well, i think what we would like congress to do not just what i would like congress to do is to build on the success of clay hunt. there were some things that were not included in the policy. one of the things we talk about is access to care. you know, currently i'm enrolled at the v. a. as a result of the five-year combat eligibility requirement that aloud me when i came back from iraq to go and

enroll and what we know is many of the individual who is experience trauma, the challenges that they have, and it was mentioned earlier that, you know, older men now are -- starting to see an up tick of those individuals who were having challenges. it doesn't happen necessary happen one, two, three years after we come back. so one of the recommendation is to extend that out to 15 years so that's absolutely something that can be done. senator donnelly has been just a champion for the community at large. and then he has a package and stats he's been working on and collaborating with them. it's a very, very bold, and what we think is a very sound policy that they're working with to not only address the dod side by the v.a. side but the culture piece as well. having the president send a letter out is just -- what tremendous shift in culture. so each congressperson has an ability to do something very similar, and in their district

or in their state where they can go be leaders and change on this. use the right language i never knew that until my sister died by suicide they can share their stories so there's the policy. but again a good policy is going to impact the culture and the community aspect as well. >> i think the trouble with that whole thing of sending letters is that we don't get notified of people who committed it suicide -- and the newspapers don't report that either. we would be delighted or delighted is not a very good choice of word. but we would be honored to send that but we don't get notified of it. so that's the hard part for us. i'm rebecca cotton with senator rausch office can i ask couple of other questions? you would like to know is the suicide rate from operation desert storm and operation freedom whatever --

i can't remember of freedom. is it similar to that in the vietnam era or korean era? it sounds we hear more about it right now that it is exponentially greater, but is it similar or is it -- i don't know? >> it's a great question. and the honest truth is that the data because it wasn't tracked as closely it is hard. the feeling of those who study the issue is that it's worse, and worth taking a step back per a moment. we think of ptsd has existed since people picked up weapons a time ago. so you have that phrase and number during the civil war. in world war ii you have half a million troops half a million discharminged because of psychiatric disorders so i think of men who fought as greatest generation half a million of them sent home because they just

couldn't do it anymore. we have that idea of shell shock. ptsd shell shock in world war ii. ptsd from vietnam so toll is takes ask not new. those who believe the suicide rate is u now higher. couple of reasons for that which we can get to. but two of those briefly, the multiple deployment without question has driven that up. interestingly the majority of those who have killed themselves narrow majority have not deployed but still their own units people around them all had. even if they hadn't what they're hearing from the women, men next to them is you're going to face. they're absorbing behavior and alluded to by senator donnelly is prescription drug use. it is extraordinarily high and a problem that we as a country too high in the civilian world again and too high in the military world. in a base in afghanistan where the marl had put the base here in the valley in the taliban controlled the mountaintops they

were showing this base day after day like world war i run between bunk ergs to get place to place. there were 50 mentioning men at that base they were taking prescription drugs not the dosage that you or i but six am ambien and come back, either they go cold turkey shouldn't have taken in the first place, and go cold turkey on a medication you can have suicidal thoughts or skyrocket and go down to a normal prescription so one, not six, again that kind of change can again lead to suicide. and that's new. the reliance on prescription drugs is not something that happened in previous wars the way it's happening now. i don't think a lot of research is going into that at this exact moment but as a country we don't have any sense of how big of a problem that is. >> well everybody, thank you again. today for coming out and joining

us for this important conversation. again, i have to thank partners like bill, yoku, and mark at the american foundation for suicide prevention we're working every day in all of our communities to prevent suicide, and with partners like the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america, journalists and authors willing to speak up and out on the issue and folks like mark who i have a very fond love of at this point working afp, his wife carol, your daughter melanie, for warriors and the important work you have done every day and have done to prevent suicide. what bill said >> earlier resond

to me. every day is veterans day. we're doing work every day to prevent suicide among our nation's veterans in military personnel. and with partners like senator donnelly, the white house, up on congress, and capitol hill, inside and outside of government, we're going to get the job done. we will prevent suicide. thank you very much for coming out. and have a wonderful day. and a great veteran's day tomorrow. [applause] >> c-span has the best access to congress. watch live coverage of the house on c-span and senate on c-span, watch on c-span.org, listen live any time on our c-span radio app. get best access from behind the scenes by following cing span,

and our capitol hill reporter craig on twitter. stay with c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org for your best access to congress. some live coverage tell you about only the xrrks span network today. u.s. house will gavel in this afternoon at 2 eastern. among the bills members membersl debate this week product airplane and highway funding, live coverage of the senate here c-span 2 at 3 this evening. senators will vote on a judicial nomination for new york. the united nations security counsel is meeting today to talk about the terrorist attacks in paris, krrgs span 3 will have live coverage of that at 3 eastern. coming up at 4 today, c-span 3 will bring you live coverage as two judges deability dna testing in criminal cases. that discussion hosted by the katoa institute. here on c-span 2, 7 eastern senate adjourned for the day live