Georgia veterans agency highlights suicide-prevention work, digital tools and a surge in benefits awards

Commissioner Trish Ross, head of the Georgia Department of Veterans Service, told a joint meeting of state legislators that the department’s recent work has focused heavily on suicide prevention and connecting veterans to care.

"We brought in $5,200,000,000 into Georgians' pockets, into veterans or their survivors' pocket just this last year," Ross said, underscoring the department’s benefits work alongside prevention efforts. She described a grant‑funded suicide mortality review committee that partnered with Kennesaw State’s AIMS center, coroners, public‑health epidemiologists and behavioral‑health experts to examine patterns in veteran deaths.

Ross told lawmakers the department’s review shows the veteran suicide rate remains high, noting a snapshot rate of 17.6 and saying, "we're still double the national average." She added that firearms were the leading method in the cases the team reviewed: "Firearms ... were responsible for almost 80 percent of deaths." Those findings shaped the department’s preventive focus, she said.

The department said it has pursued a mix of services and tools: a four‑year suicide‑prevention award (the "Fox Grant"), ongoing trainings for community partners (mental‑health first aid, SAVE and similar programs), and a veterans wellness app that provides prompts, community groups and 24/7 access to clinical providers. Ross said Georgia is among the early state adopters of the app and provided a code for Georgia veterans to enroll at no cost.

Ross described the department’s closed‑loop referral platform (Unite Us) and an insights dashboard that allows staff to identify county‑level hotspots for loneliness, housing instability and financial insecurity — factors the department cited as contributors to suicide risk. She reported growth in direct contacts and outreach: roughly 89,000 in‑office visits this year (about 10,000 more than the prior year), nearly 40,000 claims submitted by the agency on veterans’ behalf, and a substantial increase in outreach events.

Ross and members emphasized prevention and multiagency coordination. She said the department connects veterans who are not eligible for VA services to the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) and to local partners.

During Q&A, Ross flagged a federal issue affecting veterans nationwide — a proposed change in VA disability‑rating processes that she said raised concerns (and on the day of the hearing she reported the VA had backtracked on the announced rule). She said the department will use social media and direct outreach to its opt‑in list of roughly 300,000 veterans to notify people of any final federal changes.

The hearing closed with legislators pressing for continued emphasis on prevention, data sharing and the referral network as ways to ensure veterans who show risk factors are connected quickly to care.