| Veterans
News Flash 
VA Secretary Appoints Panel of National Suicide Experts
May 21, 2008
Goal Is Reducing Veterans’ Suicides
WASHINGTON –Secretary
of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake today
announced the names of members appointed to two
special panels that will make recommendations
on ways the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
can improve its programs in suicide prevention,
suicide research and suicide education.
“There is nothing more tragic than the death
by suicide of even one of the great men or women
who have served this nation,” Peake said. “VA
is committed to doing all we can to improve our
understanding of a complicated issue that is also
a national concern.”
Membership in the first
group, the “Blue
Ribbon Work Group on Suicide Prevention in the
Veterans Population,” will be comprised of
government experts in various suicide prevention
and education programs. Those experts will come
from agencies including the Department of Defense,
the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute
of Health, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration.
The five-member work group is expected to meet
from June 11-13, and will develop a report with
recommendations for the Secretary within 15 days
of meeting.
The second group is
a nine-member expert panel, made up of nationally
renowned experts in public health suicide programs,
suicide research and clinical treatment programs,
that will provide professional opinion, interpretation,
and conclusions on information and data to the
work group. It will also make recommendations
to the work group on opportunities for improvement
in VA’s programs.
Secretary Peake initially announced the formation
of the work group during testimony to the House
Veterans Affairs Committee on May 6.
Members of the “Blue Ribbon Work Group on
Suicide Prevention in the Veterans Population” include:
- Cmdr. Alex E. Crosby, M.D., medical epidemiologist
with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
- Colonel Charles W. Hoge, M.D., director of
the division of psychiatry and behavior services
at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research;
- Colonel Robert Roy Ireland, M.D., program director
for mental health policy, Office of the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs;
- Richard McKeon, Ph.D., special advisor for
suicide prevention with the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration; and
- Jane Pearson, Ph.D., associate director for
preventive interventions, National Institute
of Mental Health.
Appointees to the expert panel include:
- Dr. Dan Blazer II, professor of psychology
at Catholic University of America;
- Greg Brown, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania;
- Martha Livingston Bruce, Ph.D., professor in
clinical epidemiology and health services research
at Weill Medical College of Cornell University;
- Dr. Eric D. Caine, chair of the department
of psychiatry at the University of Rochester;
- Dr. Jan Fawcett, professor of psychiatry at
the University of New Mexico School of Medicine;
- Robert D. Gibbons, director of the Center for
Health Statistics, University of Illinois at
Chicago;
- David Alan Jobes, Ph.D., professor of psychology
at Catholic University of America;
- Mark S. Kaplan, Ph.D., from Portland State
University. Member of the Suicide Prevention
Action Network-USA National Scientific Advisory
Council; and
- Thomas R. Ten Have, director of the Biostatistics
Analysis Center at the University of Pennsylvania
School of Medicine.
SOURCE:
US Department of Veterans Affair
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