{"id":124593,"date":"2023-11-16T17:04:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/11\/16\/va-pledges-investigation-into-crisis-line-after-whistleblower-concerns\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:02:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:02:48","slug":"va-pledges-investigation-into-crisis-line-after-whistleblower-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2023\/11\/16\/va-pledges-investigation-into-crisis-line-after-whistleblower-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"VA pledges investigation into crisis line after whistleblower concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/management\/leadership\/2023\/11\/08\/nearly-450000-staff-and-growing-just-how-large-will-va-get\/\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans Affairs officials<\/a> promised a full investigation into the operations of their suicide prevention hotline a day after whistleblowers told Congress that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/11\/15\/vets-calling-crisis-line-get-lost-in-system-whistleblowers-warn\/\" target=\"_blank\">some unstable callers may be getting ignored or lost in the system<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a letter to Senate Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee ranking member Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/military-honor\/salute-veterans\/2023\/11\/08\/mcdonough-wants-va-to-reach-every-veteran-in-the-country\/\" target=\"_blank\">VA Secretary Denis McDonough<\/a> said the goal of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/01\/06\/calls-to-veterans-suicide-hotline-spiked-over-new-years-holiday\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Veterans Crisis Line<\/a> must be to \u201cmake sure that veterans get the support they need, whenever and wherever they need it\u201d and that he takes the recent whistleblower allegations \u201cvery seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">McDonough also committed to working with an upcoming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/12\/20\/va-secretary-promises-not-to-let-suicide-prevention-funds-go-unspent-again\/\" target=\"_blank\">Government Accountability Office<\/a> investigation into the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday, Moran voiced concerns about \u201cgross mismanagement creating a danger to the health and safety of veterans nationwide\u201d in the crisis line\u2019s operations and called for a full examination of the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2023\/11\/15\/vets-calling-crisis-line-get-lost-in-system-whistleblowers-warn\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/vcl-spread-the-word_tw_fb_post-6.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Vets calling crisis line get lost in system, whistleblowers warn<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">A government watchdog group has promised to investigate the claims.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Veterans Crisis Line has seen a rapid expansion in recent years, growing from about 900 full-time employees in early 2021 to more than 1,800 today. It has also seen a dramatic rise in demand since last summer, when federal officials launched a new three-digit dialing system \u2014 988 \u2014 for individuals seeking emergency mental health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A group of current and former employees told Senate staff that the extra workload has prompted leadership at the Veterans Crisis Line to establish a special unit designed to handle \u201ccallers with complex needs.\u201d Individuals who present erratic or hostile behavior towards VA staff can be sent to those specialists instead of going to the next available worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the whistleblowers said the special unit is understaffed, and many of those rerouted calls are simply dropped or lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his letter to Moran, McDonough said the special queue for complex callers was established in 2018 as a way to both provide specialized care to those individuals while ensuring that other callers and staff are not overwhelmed by their extra needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He wrote that operators are following industry best practices to help de-escalate tense situations through \u201cselectively delayed responses,\u201d and callers always have the option to receive immediate care if the situation demands it. He also said crisis line operations mandate \u201cno break in record retention\u201d with those callers, allowing operators to follow up if they are disconnected for any reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Senate staff said the whistleblowers challenged that contention, saying that often veterans shifted to the complex cases queue leave before operators can collect any information, leaving the fate of callers uncertain. They also complained that rules for which callers should be routed to the specialists are vague, leading to some individuals being sent there unnecessarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VA officials said the special unit currently has 127 employees who have received an additional 32 hours of training to deal with the more complex cases. McDonough said leadership will increase that total in coming years if workload dictates that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moran said he was pleased with the secretary\u2019s response but still concerned with the whistleblower accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis seems to be a significant problem,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re on a crisis line, life and death is involved in those calls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Veterans Crisis Line operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and bills itself as a consistent, reliable support service for veterans, troops and family members. Operators have responded to more than 6 million contacts since it launched in 2007 and issued more than 1 million referrals to local suicide prevention offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Veterans in need of emergency counseling can reach the Veterans Crisis Line by dialing 988 and selecting option 1 after connecting to reach a VA staffer. In addition, veterans, troops or their family members can also text 838255 for help, or visit <\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/veteranscrisisline.net\/\" target=\"_blank\"><i>VeteransCrisisLine.net<\/i><\/a><i> for assistance.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Government Accountability Office is also expected to launch an investigation into the suicide prevention hotline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":107433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":25,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["veterans","education-transition","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","home"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"5":{"categories":["veterans","education-transition","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","home"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"6":{"categories":["veterans","education-transition","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","home"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"7":{"categories":["veterans","education-transition","pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","home"],"primary_category":"veterans"},"8":{"categories":["federal-oversight","home","watchdogs"],"primary_category":"federal-oversight"}}},"categories":[9,29,15,35,86,25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3347],"class_list":["post-124593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-transition","category-home","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5GAFSK5QKFFGDJGRM2GSDUR6F4","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2023\/11\/16\/va-pledges-investigation-into-crisis-line-after-whistleblower-concerns\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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