Stop Soldier Suicide

While New York State has one of the lowest suicide rates in the country, its veterans die by suicide at almost double the rate of their civilian counterparts.

The State has seen the suicide rate for veterans ages 18–34 steeply increase over the past decade. In 2020, concern grew that the COVID-19 pandemic would exacerbate underlying social and behavioral health issues and the risk of veteran suicide. NYHealth awarded Stop Soldier Suicide a grant to expand its evidence-based Disrupt Veteran Suicide intervention and outreach program in New York City to serve additional veterans and their families. In 2021, NYHealth awarded Stop Soldier Suicide a second grant to further expand Disrupt Veteran Suicide throughout the New York City region, with a targeted focus on high-need areas like Staten Island.

Under this grant, Stop Soldier Suicide continued to identify and engage with veterans at risk of self-harm, creating an individualized care plan for each client. It connected clients to comprehensive support services to help alleviate crisis, based on their physical and mental health needs. To ensure veterans’ wellbeing, Stop Soldier Suicide provided follow-up services to every client consistently over the course of two years. Stop Soldier Suicide worked with an outside consultant to conduct a formal evaluation report that built upon its own internal evaluation activities. The formal evaluation provided insights about the impact of Disrupt Veteran Suicide, including best practices and potential for expansion in other cities and statewide, using data from both phases of the project. Stop Soldier Suicide disseminated the findings to various legislative, academic, and media outlets, as well as developed plans to expand the project statewide.