Tag: TBI

      The House has voted to improve the state’s efforts to prevent suicide among its veteran population. 

      Representatives voted 156-0 for House Bill 132, which directs the Missouri Veterans Commission to work with the Department of Mental Health to come up with recommendations on how Missouri can prevent veteran suicide.  It would require the Commission to report annually, beginning June 30, 2024, on new recommendations and on the implementation and effectiveness of the state’s efforts.

      The bill is sponsored by Jefferson City Republican Dave Griffith, a U.S. Army Veteran who served with the 8^th Special Forces Group as a Green Beret.  He has spent much of his career in the House dealing with veterans’ issues, and with ways to stem suicide not only among current and former service members but in the population in general.

“Many of you know, I’m very passionate about this.  I can tell you of friends that I’ve lost in the last month – veterans that have committed suicide.  A young man that was 27 years old, that grew up across the street from me took his own life.  This has got to stop,” said Griffith.

      Griffith speaks often of the social media campaign #22, and his personal goal of decreasing or eliminating what that number represents. 

      “#22 stands for the number of veterans that commit suicide every day … If we can start to look at programs and we can look at procedures that can be done and best practices that are being done by not only our state but throughout the entire United States, we can start making a difference in this, but we need to do more than just talk.  We need to do research.  We need to look at non-traditional methods of treating [post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury] and veteran suicide.”

      Though he and others in the legislature and state government have been talking about these issues for years and developing related programs, Griffith said Missouri has a long way to go.  Representative Ashley Bland Manlove (D-Kansas City), who has served in the Missouri National Guard, agreed. 

“For a lot of people these conversations about mental health are brand new … so a lot of people are still like, ‘When I was in the military we just had to grunt through it, and talking about your emotions made you weak,’ but what we have found out is that that’s not true.”

“I think the biggest population that we should be talking about is the one percent of American population that raises their right hand for this country,” continued Bland Manlove.  “The best way that we can thank our veterans for their dedication and work to this country is by taking care of them.”

Rogersville Republican Darin Chappell (R) has a great deal of experience with the issues faced by military members and their families, as he is a veteran of the Navy and the Army Reserves and has many service members in his family. 

      “I have long believed, and have advocated for, the philosophy:  ‘If we send them we have to mend them, and we have to bring them all the way home.’  It’s time for us to do all that we can to make sure that occurs.”

      Before casting their votes for the measure, legislators reflected about their own personal experiences.  St. Clair Republican Brad Banderman solemnly told his colleagues, “About two years ago my little sister laid down on the grave of my older brother that shot himself in 1990 and killed herself.  Anything that we can do as a legislature, as a body, as individuals, to help prevent the suicide of our veterans, I’m in full support of.”

      Missouri as of 2020 had the 14^th highest suicide rate in the U.S., with about 1,125 people having died by suicide in that year.  The rate among veterans is approximately 1.5 higher than in the rest of the population, and experts are telling legislators they fear that suicide rates are going to increase. 

      “I think we need to do better and I think this is a good start,” said Representative Robert Sauls (D-Independence). 

      The same bill passed out of the House last year but did not come to a final vote in the Senate. 

      Anyone in need of help for themselves or someone else for a mental health, substance abuse, or suicide crisis is encouraged to call 988.