MATTHEW TULLY

Tully: Donnelly fights the tragedy of military suicides

Matthew Tully

Gregg Keesling stood in the cold Monday morning outside the Indiana War Memorial, showing me pictures of his late son, Chancellor, an Army reservist who committed suicide while serving in Iraq more than six years ago.

“This issue is so hard for people to talk about,” Keesling said as he scrolled through photographs on his phone, stopping on one that showed his son’s tombstone. “But we have to do more and talk more.”

Keesling was at the War Memorial to stand on stage with U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, who has made doing more to address the heartbreak of military suicides the centerpiece of his first term in the Senate. He’s doing so at a time when suicides among active soldiers outpace combat deaths, and when an average of 22 veterans a day take their own lives.

“They’re moms and dads, and brothers and sisters, and husbands and wives,” Donnelly said. “This has to end.”

In front of a handful of reporters, Donnelly talked about recently passed legislation — known as The Care Package — that seeks to ensure service members and veterans have more access to high-quality mental health care, and that the care is provided by professionals trained to deal with their specific needs. Donnelly and a trio of Republicans co-authored different provisions in the legislation, which complements a bipartisan bill the senator pushed through last year to provide annual mental health assessments to service members.

“This is about the needs of our service members and our veterans,” Donnelly said. “It has nothing to do with Democrat or Republican.”

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At a time when so little is being done in Washington to address big problems, and when partisanship is polluting just about every area of policy, domestic and international, Donnelly’s news conference was a hopeful reminder that Congress can still tackle important issues. And it doesn’t get much more important than this.

Last year, 443 active duty men and women committed suicide. Sadly, the numbers are similar this year.

Those taking their lives have served their country with honor, often during multiple deployments, but too often the trauma they endure — trauma caused by injuries, stress or other challenges of military life — has gone untreated, or not treated appropriately.

Keesling recalled the headaches his son experienced after a latrine he was in exploded, the stress his son was under as his marriage crumbled, and the lack of communication between the Army and the reserves about his mental health issues after he left one for the other. But, Keesling said, efforts to address such problems have begun to improve in recent years.

The legislation Donnelly co-authored is aimed at improving and expanding access to mental health care both in the military and in communities across the nation. The country, he said, should not tolerate instances of service members failing to find help when they are searching for it.

It certainly should not. We should not. This issue is too critical, and those who serve the country have done too much, to leave them without the support they need.

Major Scott Edwards, the Indiana National Guard’s behavioral health officer, said it is important to remember that most of those who serve in combat do not experience mental health issues. “Yet we are not invulnerable,” he said. And when help is needed, “We need behavioral health providers who understand what it’s like to be in the military.”

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Donnelly’s legislation creates a “service member-friendly mental health care” designation, and an online registry of such providers, which will make it easier for veterans and active duty members to find help while in their home communities. The legislation also seeks to improve health provider training within government and address a shortage of medical professionals addressing this issue, in part by training more physician assistants.

It’s just one step forward, he said, and more will be needed.

As the senator talked Monday, Keesling stood to his side. He said last week marked the seventh Thanksgiving in which his family has been without Chancellor. His son would now be in his early 30s, perhaps a father. A day doesn’t pass without his family thinking about him.

“It never gets any easier,” Keesling said. “All you have left is to try to reach out and help others.”

He has done so by reaching out to families who have suffered heartbreaks like his. And by standing with politicians who, like Donnelly, do the right thing.

You can reach me at matthew.tully@indystar.com or on Twitter: @matthewltully.