No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. GABBARD. Mr. Speaker, not too long ago, I was woken up abruptly one morning by a text message from a friend of mine that I had both served and trained with in the Army. His message was alarming because it came after many months of struggle in his life: nightmares, posttraumatic stress, many late nights staying up self-medicating with alcohol, troubles with his family, and a constant desire coming from him that the only way he knew how to deal with the challenges that he had was to deploy again and again and again.

Finally, he was home and he got to a point where he felt comfortable asking for help. He summoned up the courage one day--he was at his civilian job during the day--finally to call his local VA hotline, and he got a voice-mail.

This strong, battle-worn, courageous infantryman broke down in tears and ran out of the office building where he worked. His frustration and disappointment and even heartbreak was palpable that, even as he had spent so many years of his life answering the call to duty again and again and again, sacrificing so much, at that one moment that he made that very difficult decision to finally ask for help, no one was there.
No one answered the phone.

He detailed this in a text message to me. I immediately called him and spent a couple of hours on the phone with him talking things through. I thanked him--he said: Sorry for bothering you about this-- but I thanked him for making that call and letting me know what happened to him, giving me the opportunity to not only see how I could help him as my friend, but to see how we collectively can take action to help all of our brothers and sisters, unfortunately, many of whom are going through challenges that are not so different from his.
Just a few days ago, a veteran in my district called the Veterans Crisis Line for the first time. Her psychologist had encouraged her to place a test call to the crisis line so she could feel comfortable with how it worked, she could see how it worked, and she would feel comfortable making that phone call in the future if she got to a point where she needed it at a point of emergency. So she called that number with her psychologist and they waited on hold for 24 minutes. It took 24 minutes before someone finally answered the phone.
Now, I can tell you, when I call the airlines to change a reservation or when I call the bank to deal with an issue, I get frustrated when I get placed on hold for 5 minutes or 10 minutes. I feel like this is a waste of my time and I am going to hang up the phone.

It is virtually impossible for most people to understand that, when someone has a bottle of prescription drugs in their hand or a gun or they are on the verge of taking their own life and they are sitting on hold for 24 minutes, what do we think the outcome will be? Sometimes we are seeing that the shortcomings and gaps of the VA and these help lines have been filled by phone call networks that have been slapped together by troops, whether they are soldiers or marines or airmen or sailors, who are looking out for their buddy, doing what they can to make sure that everyone has got each other's phone numbers so that, if you get to that point where you need help, you have got someone to call who is going to answer the phone, who is going to talk you down from the edge, helping to make sure that, after they have survived the rigors and horrors of war and combat, they have a chance to live in peace when they come home.

With the average of 22 veterans who go through all of that and who do come home yet are still taking their lives every single day, we cannot afford to give up. We cannot afford 24 minutes on hold.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. GABBARD. This is why I strongly support and have cosponsored this critical piece of legislation, and I commend my colleague from Iowa for introducing it, H.R. 5392, the No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act. This bill establishes quality standards and metrics to make sure that every call to the Veterans Crisis Line is answered quickly and by a live trained person.

I urge all of my colleagues to join me in passing this legislation today because the lives of our veterans depend on it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source