Editorial: Veterans suicide hotline disaster is appalling

The crisis hotline for America’s veterans is in crisis.

The Department of Veterans Affairs admits a suicide hotline it runs is failing to answer the phone. How can that be, when about 20 veterans commit suicide every day?

Fix it. Now.

The former director of the Veterans Crisis Line told The Associated Press that an average of 35 to 40 percent of the calls in May went unanswered by the crisis-trained health science specialists at its Canandaigua, New York location. The calls rolled to backup centers run by a contractor and staffed by workers, sometimes volunteers, who lack specialized training.

That’s consistent with the findings of the Government Accountability Office, which ran a covert test of the Veterans Crisis Line in 2015. Investigators determined that it met the VA’s call response time goals — answering the phone within 30 seconds or sometimes 60 seconds — only 65 to 75 percent of the time. The rest of the calls were transferred to one of five backup call centers, where some callers were left on hold.

The VA’s policy prohibits Veterans Crisis Line staffers from placing callers on hold without first completing a suicide assessment. So much for policy.

The GAO also found problems with the Veterans Crisis Line’s response to text messages. Four of the 14 text messages in the GAO’s covert test went unanswered.

In February, the VA’s Office of Inspector General reported on complaints about the Veterans Crisis Line dating back to 2014. The report documented that 20 calls to one backup center went to voicemail. The calls were never returned because the staff didn’t know there was a voicemail system.

We are not making this up.




While the VA has made a few changes, the crisis line has not been able to keep pace with demand. From 2008 to 2015, the number of calls increased by nearly 700 percent.

Last year, the line received more than 500,000 calls, and no one knows how many more callers may accidentally have reached a call center not operated by the VA. The Veterans Crisis Line shares a national toll-free number with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — 1-800-273-TALK (8255). A recorded message instructs veterans and their families to press “1” to be connected to the veterans’ line. Who knows if they do?

The House of Representatives unanimously passed the No Veterans Crisis Line Call Should Go Unanswered Act and sent it to the Senate. It requires the VA to ensure that a qualified person responds to all calls and texts in a timely manner.

Really? We need a law for that? Apparently we do. It should pass pronto, and President Barack Obama should sign it. But the VA shouldn’t have to wait for it to fix this abomination.