NATIONAL NEWS

Local veteran fights to stop suicides

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After a trying deployment in Iraq in 2005, former U.S. Army Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. By 2007, the psychic pain seemed inescapable for the Bellmore native. So he downed a bottle of vodka and several Percocet pills in a field in Fort Stewart, Ga., attempting to kill himself.

Goldsmith, who is now 29 and living in Long Beach, survived his suicide attempt, and has since shared his story with everyone from friends to top elected leaders in the federal government, while advocating for legislation that he believes would help reverse a national suicide epidemic among veterans –– 22 take their own lives every day.

With other representatives of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America organization (known as IAVA), Goldsmith has met with Congressional and White House representatives to lobby for the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Bill. The measure passed the House of Representatives unanimously on Dec. 9, but Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, blocked a vote in the Senate on Monday.

Reps. Tim Walz and Jeff Miller introduced the House version of the bill, while Sens. John McCain, Richard Blumenthal, Richard Burr, Roy Blunt, Lisa Murkowski and Joe Manchin introduced the legislation in the Senate. According to a McCain news release, the proposal was named for Clay Hunt, a Marine veteran who committed suicide in March 2011, at age 28. The Texas resident had enlisted in the Marine Corps in May 2005 and deployed to Al Anbar Province, near Fallujah, Iraq, in January 2007.

The bill calls for the secretary of veterans affairs and the secretary of defense to require an independent, third-party evaluation of federal mental health care and suicide prevention programs. Veterans have reported numerous issues with these programs. According to an IAVA survey of members, 68 percent of respondents had difficulty scheduling appointments with a VA mental health provider.

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