FederalDaily - August 1, 2007
VA Suicide Prevention Hotline Debuts
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on July 30 announced it has begun operating a national suicide
prevention hotline for veterans. Mental health professionals located in Canandaigua, N.Y., will answer
calls placed to the new toll-free hotline number—1-800-273-TALK (8255)—and work with local
VA mental health providers to help callers. VA is partnering with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services to provide the service. “Veterans
need to know these VA professionals are literally a phone call away,” said VA Secretary Jim Nicholson. “Veterans
should see mental health services as another benefit they have earned.” The hotline one of several
mental health care enhancements Nicholson has announced earlier this year. For more, go to: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1363.
:: Back to Top ::
Grassley Expands Investigation into Potential Ethics Violations at NIEHS
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter last week to the director of the National Institutes of
Heath (NIH) broadening his inquiry into allegations of mismanagement at the institute’s National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). In a letter to NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, Grassley,
who is ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, requested documents and answers to a range of
specific questions dealing with alleged mismanagement and conflicts of interest at NIEHS, mostly focused
around the activities of NIEHS Director Dr. David Schwartz. Grassley said information received by the
committee indicates that Schwartz may have engaged in a range of potentially unethical behavior, including
serving as an expert witness in court cases, circumventing normal hiring practices, and disregarding
established internal policies and procedures during the approval process for extramural grants. Grassley
said documents also indicate that Schwartz may have exceeded budget for his personal lab, and then
redirected $4 million from other research into his own. Grassley, who called morale at NIEHS “less
than stellar,” also noted that numerous NIEHS employees told committee investigators that “Dr.
Schwartz seems less interested in ethics than in getting what he wants.” For more, go to: www.senate.gov/~finance/press/Gpress/2007/prg073007b.pdf
:: Back to Top ::
House Passes Four Bills to Benefit Veterans
Legislators in the House on July 30 passed a number of bills aimed at addressing the growing needs
of today’s returning vets. The bills, among other things, prohibit the collection of co-payments
for all hospice care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) (H.R. 2623); provide financial
assistance to low-income vets, and funding transportation to facilities for vets in rural areas (H.R.
2874); provide specially adaptive housing assistance to disabled servicemembers residing temporarily
in housing owned by a family member (H.R. 1315); and establish a general fund to provide payments to
qualifying members of the Merchant Marine who served in World War II (H.R. 23). For more, go to: http://veterans.house.gov/news/110/7-30-07.shtml.
:: Back to Top ::
|
