{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/in-portland-king-joins-experts-for-panel-discussion-on-preventing-veterans-suicide", "In Portland, King Joins Experts for Panel Discussion on Preventing Veterans Suicide", "2018-09-17", "2018", "2018-09", "Independent", "House", "ME", "Angus King", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "PORTLAND, ME\r\n Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) joined a\r\npanel featuring veterans' healthcare experts and caregivers at the\r\nPortland Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC). The panel included: Russell\r\nArmstead, Assistant Medical Center Director at the VA Maine\r\nHealthcare System; Tracy Charette, Suicide Prevention Coordinator\r\nat Togus VA Medical Center; David Richmond, Interim Director at Bureau\r\nof Veterans' Services; Greg Marley, Clinical Director & Senior\r\nTrainer at Maine Chapter National Alliance on Mental Illness\r\n(NAMI); Shamera Simpson, Area Director of the American Foundation for\r\nSuicide Prevention; Suzanne Fox, Founder of The Yellow Tulip\r\nProject; and veterans Camden Ege and Jeremy Kendall. The discussion\r\nhighlighted common suicide risk factors and warning signs for suicide, provided\r\ninformation about VA mental health and suicide prevention resources, and\r\nemphasized the importance of starting the conversation around veteran mental\r\nhealth.   Our veterans\r\nhave made immense sacrifices on behalf of our national security, and we have a\r\nnational responsibility to care for them  both physically and mentally, said\r\nSenator King. Unfortunately, far too many of our veterans still carry the\r\nweight of their service, and feel like they cannot access the help they need.\r\nThat needs to change, and one of the ways to bring about that change is through\r\na dialogue, speaking directly to veterans to tell them that we are here to\r\nhelp. I'm grateful for the insight of today's excellent panel, and for their\r\ndedication to supporting the mental health of our veterans.  Senator King has\r\nbeen a strong advocate for veterans issues since arriving in Washington.\r\nEarlier this week, he\r\napplauded the House and Senate's passage of the MilCon-VA Conference Report,\r\nwhich aims to consolidate and\r\nimprove VA community care programs, as well as improve VA's ability to hire\r\nhigh-quality healthcare professionals, expand VA caregiver benefits to veterans\r\nof all eras and establish a process to evaluate and reform VA's existing\r\nfacilities to best serve veterans. In\r\nJune,his bill to strengthen accountability of senior executives at the VA\r\nwassigned\r\ninto law. In May, he helda\r\nlistening session with Maine veteranson the qualities and values they\r\nare looking for in a new VA Secretary, and in April Senator Kingvisited\r\nthe Travis Mills Foundation Veterans Retreat in Rome, which brings injured\r\nveterans and their families to Maine in order to help the veterans overcome\r\nphysical obstacles with the support of family members. The Senator also\r\nhighlighted the important place of veterans in Maine by devoting hisNovemberandDecemberpodcasts\r\nto the subject, with Travis Mills as one of the guests on the latter show. In\r\nDecember, theU.S.\r\nDepartment of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced it will fund three new positionsinMaineto\r\nbetter serve justice-involved Maine veterans confronting homelessness, mental\r\nhealth or substance abuse issues  a move which follows aFebruary\r\nletter from Senator King to the VAurging additional resources on the\r\ntopic. Senator King was a cosponsor of theDepartment of Veterans\r\nAffairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017, which\r\npassed the Senate in June 2017 and has since beensigned\r\ninto law.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/in-portland-king-joins-experts-for-panel-discussion-on-preventing-veterans-suicide"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8456278592348099, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}