JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri (WGEM) — A new law that takes effect Wednesday gives the Missouri Veterans Commission more responsibility in combating the troubling suicide rate among the state’s veteran population.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans in Missouri are more likely to commit suicide than the national average among veterans and also more likely than the state’s general population.
“There are a lot of assumptions about veteran suicides, but that’s not the important thing,” said retired Colonel Paul Kirchhoff, executive director of the commission. “We need to know what the facts are and what the truth is.”
Kirchhoff said part of the commission’s work will be selecting a statewide coordinator to lead this new effort. He also said the group will need to look across the state and beyond for solutions.
“I was able to work with many other government agencies across the country that have similar programs. I was able to learn from their experiences and build expectations so that they became realistic,” Kirchhoff said.
Ric DePontee is the 2024 Commander of the Missouri Veterans of Foreign Wars.
“Now we’re presenting it to the Missouri Veterans Commission and saying, ‘We want you to look at this. We want you to look at different avenues,'” DePontee said. “Is opioid abuse part of the problem? Is homelessness part of the problem? We have all of this data, we just need to get it in one place.”
The same law creates a new state medal to be awarded to veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In addition, state agencies are required to ask about veteran status on all new or modified forms.
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