Great Plains Veterans Services Center awarded VA suicide prevention grant

Press release

ROCKY BOY's INDIAN RESERVATION - The Department of Veterans Affairs is continuing its mission of preventing veteran suicide by working with community organizations across the country, including Great Plains Veterans Services Center, formerly Rocky Boy Veterans Center.

Through the Staff Sgt. Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program - SSG Fox SPGP - Great Plains Veterans Services Center received $650,000 from VA to support local veterans.

"We look forward to making a difference in our veteran communities," Great Plains Veterans Services Center Executive Director Chauncey Parker said. "It's important that our fellow veterans know they don't have to fight this fight alone. I'm proud of our team's vision for improving our communities and excited to see the outcomes of this program."

The SSG Fox SPGP is a pilot, community-based grant program that will provide financial assistance to eligible entities to provide or coordinate providing suicide prevention services to eligible veterans and their families. Eligible entities have been awarded one-year, renewable funding.

With its SSG Fox SPGP award, Great Plains Veterans Services plans to provide suicide prevention services to veterans in three of its five branch office locations, Rocky Boy, Fort Belknap and Browning, to include Blaine, Chouteau, Glacier, Hill and Phillips counties.

"We hold to our mission statement, 'Veterans helping Veterans for a better future,'" Parker said.

The program will strengthen the goals of the center in supporting veterans and service members by helping them obtain the care and benefits they have earned through their service to this country.

For more information on Great Plains Veterans Services Center, people can visit http://www.greatplainsveterans.org .

Information on the SSG Fox SPGP can be found at https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/ssgfox-grants .

People who are or who know someone who is having thoughts of suicide can contact the Veterans Crisis Line to receive free, confidential support and crisis intervention available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. They can dial 988 then press 1, chat online at http://www.VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat or text 838255 .