Milwaukee Veteran Affairs Medical Center Working with Community Partners to Combat High Rates of Veteran Suicide

Monday, November 6th, 2023 -- 1:01 PM

(By Margaret Faust, Wisconsin Public Radio) The Milwaukee Veteran Affairs Medical Center is working with community partners to try to combat high rates of suicide among veterans in Wisconsin.

According to Margaret Faust with Wisconsin Public Radio, the VA hosted a symposium on suicide prevention Thursday, bringing organizations together in the hope of improving the reach and quality of services to veterans in Wisconsin.

According to the most recent National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, veteran suicide deaths decreased for the second consecutive year in 2020. But the suicide rate of veterans was approximately 58 percent higher than non-veteran adults, which reflects an almost 20-year trend.

Afghanistan veteran Peter Borucki works for Mental Health America of Wisconsin. He is a peer services coordinator at R&R House in Pewaukee, the nation’s first peer-run respite house for any former members of the United States Armed Forces.

There are 331,340 veterans that live in Wisconsin, according to a 2022 report from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development on behalf of the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce.

But according to the Milwaukee VA, only 30 percent of veterans are served through the organization. Some veterans are ineligible because of length of service or discharge status, and others are unsure if they qualify, or live far away from VA centers and hospitals.

Dona Drew, community engagement and partnership coordinator at the VA, said that’s why networking events like the one at the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center are so important.

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