The VA's suicide prevention campaign is taking its outreach online, piloting a one-on-one chat service called "Veterans Chat" for veterans who feel more comfortable with anonymity on the internet.
Veterans, families and friends can anonymously chat with a trained VA counselor online, and if the communication indicates a crisis, the counselor can immediately transfer that person to the VA Suicide Prevention hotline where steps in crisis intervention begin.
Veterans retain anonymity by entering whatever names they choose once they enter
one-on-one chat. A counselor then joins them who is trained to provide information and respond to the requests and concerns of the caller.
If the counselor decides the caller is in a crisis, the counselor will encourage the
Veteran to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline, where a trained suicide prevention
counselor will determine whether crisis intervention techniques are required.
The pilot program has been in operation since July 3 and has shown results. In once instance,
an online counselor convinced a veteran needing immediate assistance to provide ahome number, then remained in the chat room with the veteran while another hotline staffer called and talked to the veteran’s mother. Working with the mother, the hotline counselor was able to convince the veteran to check into a inpatient care.
“This online feature is intended to reach out to all veterans who may or may not be
enrolled in the VA health care system, Dr. Gerald Cross, VA’s acting undersecretary for health, said in a press release that the online feature is intended to reach out to all veterans who may or may not be in the VA health care system.
“It is meant to provide Veterans with an anonymous way to access VA’s suicide prevention services,” he said.
Veterans, family members or friends can access Veterans Chat through the suicide
prevention Web site (www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org).
A veterans tab on the left-hand side of the web page takes them directly to veterans resource information. There's also a hotline number 1-800-273-TALK, and a link on the
Veterans Chat tab on the right side of the Web page to enter.
"The chat line is not intended to be a crisis response line,” Dr. Janet Kemp,
VA’s National Suicide Prevention Coordinator at the VA medical center in Canandaigua,
N.Y., said in a news release.
"Chat responders are trained in an intervention method specifically developed for
the chat line to assist people with emotional distress and concerns,” Kemp said. “We have
procedures they can use to transfer chatters in crisis to the hotline for more immediate
assistance,” she said.
The VA’s trained counselors staff the chat line from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. from the VA national suicide prevention center at the Canandaigua, N.Y. VA medical center, while the suicide hotline is staffed 24/7.
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