Sponsors (9)
The bill pilots standardized Zero Suicide care and clinician training at a small set of VA sites with required evaluation to improve veteran suicide prevention, but its limited scale/duration and resource and implementation risks mean benefits may remain narrow or temporary unless the program is well executed and expanded.
Veterans at five participating VA medical centers will receive standardized Zero Suicide suicide-prevention care, increasing access to evidence-based suicide screening and interventions.
VA clinical staff (about 5–10 people per site) will receive at least ten weeks of training and Academy attendance, strengthening clinician skills in suicide screening, safety planning, and follow-up care.
The bill requires annual and final outcome reports comparing pilot sites to other VAs, creating evidence to evaluate effectiveness and guide decisions about national expansion.
Because the pilot is limited to only five sites and five years, most veterans nationwide will not benefit during the program period and gains may be temporary if the program is not expanded.
Outcomes depend heavily on implementation quality and the short timeframe, so the pilot could produce inconclusive results that limit lessons for broader rollout.
Implementing training and expanded data collection will require VA staff time and resources, potentially diverting clinical time or raising operational costs for participating centers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a five-year VA pilot to implement the Zero Suicide Institute curriculum at five VA medical centers with training, data collection, and reporting requirements.
Introduced December 4, 2025 by Susie Lee · Last progress December 4, 2025
Creates a five-year VA pilot program to implement the Zero Suicide Institute curriculum at five VA medical centers to improve suicide prevention, care, training, and data collection for veterans. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs must plan and select sites, train staff, collect outcomes, and submit annual and final reports evaluating effectiveness and recommending next steps. The law requires the VA to begin the program within 180 days, conduct a year of development and site selection with outside consultation, operate training and data activities at five sites (including one focused on rural/remote veterans), and end the pilot after five years unless Congress is notified of up to a two-year extension.