{"id":71174,"date":"2019-04-25T17:45:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T17:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/04\/25\/recent-series-of-campus-suicides-raise-complicated-questions-for-va\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T13:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T13:38:17","slug":"recent-series-of-campus-suicides-raise-complicated-questions-for-va","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/veterans\/2019\/04\/25\/recent-series-of-campus-suicides-raise-complicated-questions-for-va\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent series of campus suicides raise complicated questions for VA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite three suicides in six days<\/a> on Veterans Affairs campuses earlier this month, department officials are confident they have made progress in preventing such deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 24 suicides have occurred on VA campuses in the last 18 months, the most recent two weeks ago when a veteran shot himself in front of a crowd<\/a> in the lobby of a Texas VA outpatient clinic. That came less than a week after two other veterans died by suicide at separate VA locations in Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re struggling to find any single trend with that group,\u201d said Dr. Keita Franklin, national director of suicide prevention at VA.<\/a> \u201cCompared to the overall (number of veteran suicides), that number is small \u2026 But we\u2019re very concerned about anything that happens on our campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the sudden spate of deaths doesn\u2019t reflect recent progress at department hospitals, VA officials argue. In fact, outside health experts have lauded VA officials for their work on the issue in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\t