VA Butler Healthcare hosts annual suicide prevention resource fair, walk
BUTLER TWP — VA Butler Healthcare held its annual veterans suicide prevention resource fair and walk Thursday, Sept. 10, to help stop area veterans from being added to the list of more than 6,000 veterans a year who have taken their lives.
September is Suicide Prevention Month and Thursday was Suicide Prevention Day.
Many VA and community-based agencies staffed booths to provide veterans with ways to obtain support and treatment services. The Walk to Remember, which was held to show support for veterans and loved ones who struggle to connect with friends and family, began at noon.
“We have the Walk to Remember in remembrance of those who we lost to suicide death,” said Lisa Madras, suicide prevention coordinator at VA Butler Healthcare. “We use this special day to bring awareness to programs to prevent suicide among veterans.”
She said she was an infant when her father took his life shortly after returning home from military service in Vietnam. Her husband, who wasn’t in the military, also committed suicide. A suicide in a family has a “ripple effect through generations,” Madras said.
According to the VA, 6,398 veterans committed suicide in 2023, the last year statistics were available for. That number reflects a decrease from the previous two years, but the annual number of veterans suicides has surpassed 6,000 since at least 2018.
VA programs represented at the fair included Live Whole Health, which helps veterans develop personalized health and well-being plans, Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Prevention, the Virtual Health Resource Center, home telehealth and VA Caregiver Support.
The Virtual Health Resource Center connects veterans to an online portal where they can check their appointments, get medication refilled, schedule blood work, said Alexis Glasgow, advanced telehealth clinical technician in the Connected Care Department.
She said her department is hosting a “Connected Care Fair” Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. at the VA.
The VA also has a Safety Plan app that can help veterans identify suicide warning signs, build coping strategies, and connect with trusted sources of support before a crisis happens. The link for the app is https://mobile.va.gov/app/safety-plan.
Outside agencies included the Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties’ Suicide Coalition network, Carelon, which provides behavioral health services in Butler County and 10 other counties, the Veteran Leadership Program, which helps address homelessness, evictions, employment and suicide, and Cranberry Township-based Canines for Courage, which provides service, therapy and companion dogs at no cost to veterans.
Canines for Courage board member David Titley, a retired state trooper from the Butler barracks and a 25-year Army Reserve special forces nurse, brought his service dog Alvin, a 14-month old English Labrador retriever, to the resource fair.
He said Berkley Creek Labradors of Mars donates one dog from each litter of puppies to the program. Family Dog Obedience of Butler trains the dogs. Canines for Courage raises the $15,000 to $20,000 needed to cover the training cost.
Seven dogs have been given to veterans so far this year, and 62 dogs have been provided since 2016, Titley said.
“We’ve had a lot of success, especially with combat veterans,” he said.
Alvin received 970 hours of training this year to detect and help relieve post-traumatic stress and stress from head injuries. Titley said Alvin detects sweat from stress and then lays on his feet to apply positive pressure.
When Titley speaks with another person, Alvin approaches and sits between them to make sure Titley has some breathing room. If Alvin detects stress in Titley, he gently leans against the other person to get them to take a step back.
“There’s a change in body chemistry, and that’s what he picks up,” Titley said. “Dogs are naturally tuned into that. A lot of people don’t know that.”
He said English Labradors are the only breed used in the program because they are friendly and not intimidating to the people veterans come in contact with.
Veterans, or warriors as Titley calls them, get their dogs when they reach six weeks of age. A warrior will sit with a litter of puppies and gets to keep the puppy that takes liking to him or her.
“You don’t pick your dog. Your dog picks you,” Titley said.
