Combating veteran suicides

President Obama this week signed a rare bipartisan bill, one he says honors “a young man who isn’t here but should be here.”

The president was referring to a 28-year-old Texan, Clay Hunt, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran who committed suicide in 2011.

The Purple Heart recipient struggled with post-traumatic stress and was one of about 8,000 veterans a year who take their own lives.

The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, which passed the Senate 99-0, requires the Veterans Affairs Department and the Pentagon to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs and make information on suicide prevention more easily available to veterans.

This is one of several recent steps the government has taken to confront the epidemic suicide rate of 22 a day for veterans.

We can never do enough.

This story was originally published February 13, 2015 at 7:21 PM with the headline "Combating veteran suicides."