VA Coaching into Care Act

Toll-free mental health hotline for veteran families

This bill would create a three-year pilot at the Department of Veterans Affairs to run a toll-free hotline for family members, people who live with a veteran, and friends. The VA would have to set up the Program not later than one year after enactment. Hotline staff would be VA psychologists and social workers hired for the Program. They would give advice on talking about mental and behavioral health with a veteran and would provide referrals to VA or non-VA mental health services. The VA would have to tell veterans service organizations and similar groups about the Program within 60 days and put flyers and posters in each Vet Center and VA medical facility and promote the Program publicly within 90 days. The pilot would end three years after it starts, and the VA would have to send a report to the Senate and House Veterans' Affairs committees within 180 days after the pilot ends. That report would include call counts, average answer time, average call length, types and numbers of referrals, outreach actions, and recommendations on continuing or expanding the Program.