This bill addresses mental health services and care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including matters related to personnel, Vet Center administration, care for women veterans, and access to care.

The bill authorizes the VA to waive the licensure or certification requirement for individual licensed professional mental health counselor appointees for a reasonable period of time.

The bill also extends the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program and increases the maximum annual grant amount.

The VA must provide Vet Centers with guidance for assessing outreach activities and implement processes to periodically assess the extent to which (1) veterans and eligible members of the Armed Forces experience barriers to obtaining services at Vet Centers, and (2) Vet Center staff may encounter barriers to providing services.

Among other requirements, the VA must also

• survey and host listening sessions with women veterans to gauge the effectiveness of the VA’s suicide prevention, lethal-means safety, and mental health resources and messaging campaigns;
• initiate efforts to modify the Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET) program to incorporate risk factors weighted for women;
• annually offer a mental health consultation to veterans who are receiving compensation for a service-connected disability relating to a mental health diagnosis; and
• implement a pilot program to provide access to mental health residential treatment programs for veterans with a spinal cord injury or disorder.