VA Moving Forward on Implementing Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Law

Hampton VA Medical Center (Image: va.gov)

Military.com | By Dorothy Mills-Gregg

Published January 16, 2020

Firms in the Hampton, Virginia, area interested in helping veterans are being invited to submit information to the Department of Veterans Affairs about the services they could provide service members transitioning out of the military.

The VA recently published a request for information intended to be used as "market research" as the VA searches for a contractor to fulfill services laid out in the Clay Hunt Act.

Former President Barack Obama signed the bill into law in 2015 to encourage collaboration between the VA and nonprofit mental health organizations on suicide prevention efforts, among other things.

The VA is looking for firms within a 50-mile radius of the Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center to retain at least five full-time Peer Recovery Specialists who have received 72 hours of training with the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

These specialists will help transitioning members and their families, especially those living in rural communities around Hampton. They will connect these members to the appropriate VA or non-VA services, determine their needs while navigating transition, and provide recovery or wellness coaching.

Meanwhile, the firm contracting with the VA would provide the specialists with clinical and administrative supervision, 24/7 state-mandated emergency services for suicide prevention, a furnished office, electronic equipment, access to vehicles to be used during outreach activities, and credentials for gaining military installation access in coordination with the VA and Defense Department.

Interested firms should submit a capabilities statement, including their business size and socioeconomic status. More information is available on the U.S. government’s federal contracting beta site here.

-- Dorothy Mills-Gregg can be reached at dorothy.mills-gregg@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DMillsGregg.

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Related Topics: Military Headlines Department of Veterans Affairs - VA Suicide Prevention

Dorothy Mills-Gregg

Dorothy Mills-Gregg reports on all aspects relating to veterans and military health care. Before reporting for Military.com and becoming obsessed with the Defense Health Agency transition, she was a city government reporter for a daily newspaper in Bakersfield, California. She has worked as a freelancer around Sacramento covering a range of issues and briefly wrote bill analyses for the Assembly Speaker's office. She is an award-winning photographer with a degree specializing in politics and national security from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.

Email: Dorothy.Mills-Gregg@Monster.com Read Full Bio

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