President-Elect Donald Trump’s new pick for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Collins, is going to make America’s heroes healthy again.
Just ask any veteran, they’ll tell you a horror story about the VA’s bloated bureaucracy and ingrained incompetence. Veterans wait months for appointments, going without needed treatment and medications, and endure the disgrace of national neglect for those who fought, bled and sacrificed for the freedoms of our nation.
The Department of Defense’s failed policies keeps our military community mentally unhealthy.
Last week, the Department of Defense released its latest Annual Report on Suicide in the Military, finding that active-duty military suicides rose 12 percent last year, despite a massive investment in prevention programs.
In 2022, Congress mandated that it set up the Suicide Prevention Response and Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) to provide 83 recommendations for the Pentagon to address military suicides.
Since then, the Pentagon has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to tackle the rate of military suicide, and now hopes an “unprecedented investment” of an additional $261 million in the 2025 fiscal year budget will boost suicide prevention efforts. This request is just a portion of a larger $547 million effort towards suicide prevention.
In a statement, the current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, said the department has completed only 20 of the 83 steps on their prevention to-do list.
Even the DOD knows their approach isn’t working.
Tim Hoyt, deputy director for the Pentagon’s Office of Force Resiliency, said “I think we’ve heard loud and clear the message from the front lines that previous suicide prevention training–whether slide decks or just videos that people watch without any facilitation–were not working.”
As you can see, all this time and money is being spent implementing failed programs to address military suicide, highlighting how the VA is in desperate need of reform.
Our warriors deserve a champion fighting for their needs, and Collins is the man for the job.
On Veterans Day, Collins posted on X, “The system is broken and our veterans pay the price.”
In Trump’s announcement last Thursday, he said Collins would be a “great advocate for active-duty service members, veterans and military families to ensure they have the support they need.”
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Collins said he was honored to accept Trump’s nomination and that “our heroes deserve the best care and support.”
As a former military chaplain, Collins understands the critical component of spirituality. To save lives, you must treat the whole person, which includes the soul.
There has been a tremendous amount of effort implementing psychological treatments that aren’t working. The VA neglects addressing potential cognitive issues and purposefully ignores the foundational spiritual pillar of treatment.
As a combat veteran and an evangelical Christian, I can tell you that my journey of healing from the moral injuries and traumas of war came through spiritual means. Keeping God out of programs ultimately keeps troops unhealthy, especially during an existentialist crisis.
We must address all aspects of our warriors’ needs, not just the physical and psychological, but the social and spiritual aspects as well.
As a U.S. Air Force Reserve chaplain, Collins has ministered to our country’s military since 2002.
For the last 22 years Collins has helped meet the spiritual needs of the men and women in his care, so I am hopeful that Collins will continue that trajectory and inject the much-needed faith component into his approach to this issue.
On X, Collins said, “Together, we’ll make the VA work for those who fought for us. Time to deliver for our veterans and give them the world class care they deserve.”
If life-saving policies are not implemented soon, we will see the greatest downfall in military history.
Suicide is the number-one killer for our troops, and it doesn’t have to be any longer.
Doug Collins–we need you to get to work fast–America’s heroes are counting on you!
Dr. Damon Friedman retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in special operations. He is the chairman of the Veterans Service Alliance and founder of SOF Missions, which works with veterans with PTSD.
