S 2283 · 117th Congress · Armed Forces and National Security

REACH for Veterans Act

Introduced 2021-06-24· Sponsored by Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]· Senate

Bill Progress

Introduced
2
Committee
3
Senate Vote
4
House
5
Enacted
Latest: Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held.(2021-10-20)

Plain Language Summary

[AI summary unavailable — showing source text] Revising and Expediting Actions for the Crisis Hotline for Veterans Act or the REACH for Veterans Act This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to update training and procedures for call responders of the Veterans Crisis Line. Specifically, the VA must enter into an agreement with an outside organization to review the training for crisis line call responders. The VA must update the training if any deficiencies are identified after the review. Among other requirements, the VA must develop guidelines on retraining and quality management for when a call responder has an adverse event or needs improvement, annually perform a common cause analysis for identified callers to the crisis line who died by suicide in situations where the crisis line was the last point of contact, develop enhanced guidance and procedures to respond to calls to the crisis line related to substance use and overdose risk, review the current emergency dispatch standard operating procedure of the crisis line, and solicit feedback from veterans service organizations on how to conduct outreach regarding the move to 988 as the new suicide and mental health crisis hotline. Each call responder must be s…

Summarized by Claude AI · Non-partisan · For informational purposes only

Cosponsors (8)

6 Democrats2 Republicans