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.

19,000 VA employees and 8,000 Veterans donated clothing and other items worth more than $384,000 for homeless Veterans. And took a healthy walk along the way: VA’s Annual VA2K Walk & Roll. Read the full story

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Million Veteran Program has reached an important milestone when an Army Veteran from Montgomery, Alabama, became the 500,000th to voluntarily enroll in the research database program – making MVP the largest genomic database in the world.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) today announced the number of veterans experiencing homelessness in the United States has been cut nearly in half since 2010. The data revealed a 17-percent decrease in veteran homelessness between January 2015 and January 2016-quadruple the previous year’s annual decline-and a 47-percent decrease since 2010.

VA chaplains help Veterans in many ways, including invisible injuries. Read how one New York VA chaplain works with Veterans dealing with moral injury, helping them cope with memories they push away. Read the full story

As the Project ARCH pilot program comes to an end next month, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert A. McDonald today announced that Veterans enrolled in the program will be able to continue receiving care closer to home. Taking advantage of options available under the Veterans Choice Program, such as the ‘unusual or excessive burden provision’ and Provider Agreements, Veterans receiving care under Project ARCH will continue care without interruption when the pilot program ends August 7.

The Women Veterans Call Center has a new online, one-to-one chat function. Women Veterans can chat online anonymously via text with a trained woman representative, many of whom are Veterans. Read the full story