Department of Veterans Affairs
The ChallengeÂ
Veteran suicide remains one of the most urgent and complex public health challenges facing the nation. Despite sustained federal investment and growing awareness, the issue spans clinical care, community systems, individual risk factors, and broader societal barriers—requiring a coordinated, evidence-driven approach at scale.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is advancing a national strategy to address this crisis, but success depends on the ability to integrate interventions across multiple levels—clinical, community, and public health. This includes reaching diverse, high-risk Veteran populations with tailored approaches; coordinating across fragmented systems that include federal agencies, healthcare providers, and community organizations; and building a strong evidence base to inform scalable solutions.
Compounding this complexity is the need to align a large, multidisciplinary team of partners, stakeholders, and subject matter experts—ensuring that diverse efforts across training, media, clinical care, and evaluation operate as a unified, measurable strategy.
Study Design & Recommendations
Customer & Stakeholder Surveys
Qualitative Research
Report to Congress
The Approach
A-G Associates serves as a central integrator within a multidisciplinary team, helping to design and implement a national, public health–informed suicide prevention initiative aligned with the VA National Strategy for Preventing Suicide and the White House plan.
A-G leads the development of a unified implementation and evaluation framework anchored by a comprehensive logic model. This model connects inputs, activities, partners, and outcomes across all workstreams—ensuring alignment between clinical interventions, public health strategies, education efforts, and community engagement while enabling consistent measurement of impact.
A-G helps design and operationalize a national education strategy that ensures training is evidence-based, accessible, and scalable. This includes developing a learning management system, delivering targeted training on suicide prevention and lethal means safety, and aligning educational content with federal priorities and diverse audience needs.
The team supports the development and execution of national awareness campaigns focused on lethal means safety. These efforts are grounded in research and include tailored messaging, multi-platform media campaigns, and ongoing outreach strategies designed to engage specific Veteran populations and increase awareness of prevention resources.
A-G embeds evaluation across all aspects of the initiative, defining performance measures, identifying data sources, and conducting ongoing analysis. Insights are used to refine interventions in real time and inform the development of a comprehensive feasibility and implementation plan that outlines strategies for scaling successful approaches nationwide.
THE Impact
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This initiative is strengthening the VA’s ability to address Veteran suicide through a coordinated, evidence-based approach. Multi-level interventions will reach thousands of Veterans, providers, and community stakeholders, while expanding access to training, clinical resources, and public awareness campaigns.
At the same time, A-G’s integrated evaluation framework is generating actionable insights that inform continuous improvement and future scale. National education strategies and digital training platforms are increasing workforce readiness, while targeted outreach efforts are improving engagement with high-risk populations. As the initiative progresses, findings are being synthesized into a comprehensive roadmap to guide long-term implementation, policy alignment, and sustained impact across the national Veteran care system.
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