Update on the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act

Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB) is proud to announce that the Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 (S. 785) has been signed into law. The law, supported by CVB and its partners, aims to improve Veterans' access to mental health care as well as make necessary investments into suicide prevention measures and support innovative mental health research.

Over the past three years, CVB has advocated for policy changes that remove the barriers that hinder advancing diagnostics and therapeutics for Veterans’ mental health.

The Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health Care Improvement Act of 2019 (S. 785) includes important provisions that will support this mission, including improved access for Veterans to leading-edge clinical trials at the VA (Sections 704 and 705) and two provisions aimed at advancing data-driven biomarker discovery for brain health (Sections 305 and 306). CVB provided important feedback to the development of these provisions as part of its advocacy efforts with the Coalition to Heal Invisible Wounds and in partnership with the National Association of Veterans’ Research and Education Foundations (NAVREF).

CVB would like to thank the bill’s co-sponsors, Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Senator John Tester (D-MT), for their dedication and leadership on S. 785, as well as Representatives Mark Takano (D-CA-41) and Dr. Phil Roe (R-TN-1) for ensuring that this bill was received favorably in the House. We’d also like to thank them for sharing this information with Veterans seeking mental health care from both the VA and community providers.

Learn more about this new law at Congress.gov

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About Cohen Veterans Bioscience (CVB)

Cohen Veterans Bioscience is a non-profit 501(c)(3) biomedical research and technology organization dedicated to advancing brain health by fast-tracking precision diagnostics and tailored therapeutics.