Legion staffer on suicide: ‘We, as a society, need to do better’

In a very personal and emotional testimony before a House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (HVAC) subcommittee, Tiffany Ellett shared her own experiences losing friends and loved ones to suicide, why it’s so critical to stem this tide in the veteran community and beyond, and how The American Legion is working toward that goal.

Addressing HVAC’s Subcommittee on Health on June 21, The American Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Division director named four people close to her who have taken their own lives in the past three years, including two veterans. “Mental health and suicide do not just affect one community in one way,” Ellett said as she teared up. “This is a complex problem that needs a multifaceted solution. We, as a society, need to do better.”

Ellett shared 2021 statistics from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that show an estimated 12.3 million adults in the U.S. seriously considered suicide, 3.5 million planned an attempt and 1.7 million attempted. “(The) Veterans Health Administration is the largest integrated health care network in the United States,” she said. “If any organization has the ability to pull together the means to create a multifaceted solution to the mental health epidemic plaguing the United States and its veteran population, it is VA.”

Ellett expressed support for both the VA Zero Suicide Demonstration Act of 2023 and the PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Peer Support Program Act, noting the Legion’s efforts on both fronts.

“In 2021, The American Legion started its Be The One movement to destigmatize and encourage the discussion of mental health, suicide and seeking help,” Ellett said. “This movement, in combination with our Buddy Check Program created in 2019 and adopted by VA through 2023 legislation, are examples of The American Legion’s constant vigorous support of peer-to-peer solutions for veterans’ mental health complexities.”

The transition from the military to the civilian workforce can also be a stressor for mental health, said Ellett, noting “a veteran’s perceived loss of identity or mission. One of the solutions for this empty space is to immediately provide a new mission to the veteran.  This is just one of the reasons we support the Veterans Serving Veterans Act of 2023, which assists in building a direct path for a corpsman or medic to become an Intermediate Care Technician (ICT), augmenting the VA medical workforce. That being said, we would like to see the Department of Homeland Security included in this legislation so that the Coast Guard Health Services Technicians may be included in the recruitment database. We think the VA ICT program is one that with increased use could not only assist in amplifying personnel for our veterans, but could also provide much-needed transition assistance to those exiting the service by giving them a mission to move directly into.

Ellett closed by discussing legislation being considered to expand care for veterans through improving long-term care, home services and living conditions, and community care.

“The American Legion believes that veterans, and their families, are best served when their long-term care needs are promptly met while also honoring their self-autonomy and giving them the choice to remain within their local communities,” she said. “We support the introduced legislation that not only calls for an increase in funding to support housing improvements for disabled veterans so they may retain self-autonomy in the comfort of their own home, but also that which calls for codifying community care access standards to ensure veterans will receive timely, quality health care.”

Ellett also stressed the importance of caring for those who care for others. “Often the caregivers of veterans, be they spouses, siblings, even children, carry a burden that many of us don’t see,” she said. “They do such a good job of holding up the veteran that no one sees the cracks in the foundation. As a disabled veteran, the spouse of a disabled veteran, and an advocate for our veterans and their families, I have witnessed the demons that lay in wait in the dark for each of us. The American Legion calls on Congress to pass legislation such as those discussed today to assist in evolving care and support for our nation’s veterans and their families.    

Read Ellett’s submitted testimony here. Watch Ellett’s oral testimony beginning at the 1:05:28 mark here.