The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today awarded approximately $300 million more in grants under the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program to help thousands of very low-income Veteran families around the nation who are permanently housed or transitioning to permanent housing. The SSVF grant program provides access to crucial services to prevent homelessness for Veterans and their families.
VA's Gerofit fitness and health promotion program reduces the risk of the need for nursing home care by developing individually tailored, functionally-based exercise for America's older Veterans. Read the full story
For Journalists writing about Veteran suicides and Suicide Prevention Month in September, the Department of Veterans Affairs is providing the following information for reporting on the sensitive issue of suicide. VA encourages journalists writing about this important issue to visit www.ReportingOnSuicide.Org, for guidance on ways to communicate suicide from the independent National Action Alliance on Suicide Reporting.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is partnering with the Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to tailor cancer care for patients based on the genes and proteins associated with their tumors. The tri-agency program will create the nation’s first system in which cancer patients’ tumors are routinely screened for gene and protein information, with the goal of finding targeted therapies for each individual patient. The process will also continually generate new information to boost clinicians’ ability to treat the disease.
VA Audiologist Dr. Erica Bush lost her hearing as a child and understands the challenges of Veterans with hearing problems. Read her inspiring story of turning her experiences into helping Veterans. Read the full story
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today that it is piloting a protocol to implement veterinary health benefits for mobility service dogs approved for Veterans with a chronic impairment that substantially limits mobility associated with mental health disorders.
It's called the Million Veteran Program and we're half way there. A Veteran from Alabama became the 500,000th Veteran to voluntarily enroll in the program which may help to prevent and treat diseases. Read the full story
Some of America’s best doctors work for VA. We would like you to meet them. After the tragic event in Orlando, a VA doctor led a team of VA employees to help the families of the victims. Read the full story
Note: This release was updated on August 5.
The Joint Commission today provided the results of its Special Focused Surveys of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare facilities to VA leadership. The special focused surveys, prompted by reported allegations of scheduling improprieties, delays in patient care and other quality-of-care concerns, were conducted October 2014 to September 2015 and focused on measuring the progress VA has made to improve access to care and barriers that might stand in the way of providing timely care to Veterans.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today released its findings from the nation’s most comprehensive analysis of Veteran suicide rates in the United States in which VA examined more than 55 million Veterans’ records from 1979 to 2014 from every state in the nation. The effort advances VA’s knowledge from the previous report in 2012, which was primarily limited to information on Veterans who used VHA health services or from mortality records obtained directly from 20 states and approximately 3 million records.. Compared to the data from the 2012 report, which estimated the number of Veteran deaths by suicide to be 22 per day, the current analysis indicates that in 2014, an average of 20 Veterans a day died from suicide.