With COVID-19 accelerating veteran unemployment and economic uncertainty, a whole of government approach to tackling veteran suicide inclusive of private industry and academia is needed now more than ever.
Recently, Veterans Administration Secretary Robert Wilkie joined President Donald Trump to reveal the action plan (“Road Map”) of a fresh multi-agency collaborative called PREVENTS.
Ilario Pantano
While the secretary’s ties to North Carolina are common knowledge, what is less known is many of the practices and strategies being deployed nationally by PREVENTS were pioneered in North Carolina.
In partnership with the IVMF and its national AmericasServes program, North Carolina launched a digitally-enabled coordinated care network for veterans and their families regionally called NCServes that has addressed over 35,000 complex needs for veterans and their families that are typically in the social and community services realm outside of VA care.