Coming home from war can be deeply disorienting. As you adjust to living in your community just days after leaving a conflict zone, the displacement shows in big ways and small. Heading to work after I returned from a deployment to Afghanistan, I’d sometimes absentmindedly yank the door of my Taurus so hard it would bounce on its hinge, as if my arm forgot it was no longer opening the door of a heavy, armored Land Cruiser for a drive through Kabul.

And my transition was probably smoother than most. I had a civilian job and community waiting for me, and completed my service at a time when the return process had advanced considerably compared to previous generations.

Too many veterans come home shadowed by the invisible wounds of war. They may be processing what they experienced downrange, while dealing with job and family adjustments that would be stressful for anyone — all after leaving behind close relationships with unit members and the accompanying sense of community, identity and purpose. The challenge can last a lifetime.

For those whose mental health needs professional attention, stigma prevents many veterans from seeking treatment — even though a quarter of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experience post-traumatic stress disorder. As a result, almost 40 percent of veterans abuse alcohol. Each day, 20 veterans take their own lives, some of them in the parking lots of Veterans Affairs hospitals they feel have let them down.


This searing reality is part of an American epidemic of addiction and mental health care issues that has been building for years, compounded by neglect from political leaders in Washington.

To meet this urgent national challenge, we need a new approach to providing mental health and addiction care. That will require a true national commitment to treat this as the crisis it is, rooted in empowering communities so that everyone feels they have the support and resources to heal. Today, I’m proposing a plan to do just that — starting with ensuring our veterans get the care they deserve.

The best way to care for our veterans is to enlist entire communities. I’ve seen this firsthand, through our Vets’ Community Connection program in South Bend, which has connected veterans and their families with local individuals and organizations that help them build thriving lives. Programs like these are proving that veterans shouldn’t be seen as a problem to be solved, but as talent to be competed over.

So we’ll encourage communities to leverage more of this kind of ingenuity and on-the-ground expertise through $10 billion annual Healing and Belonging grants. We’ll train everyone from police officers to students and teachers in identifying and responding to mental illness and addiction. And we’ll reduce the stigma around these issues and bring those who are affected out of the shadows.


At the same time, we must prevent veteran suicides — because even one suicide is too many. So our plan will provide community support to improve veterans’ sense of connection and belonging by investing and enhancing in a National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide — while simultaneously increasing timely access to services when needed. These locally driven solutions are some of the best ways we can tackle our nation’s mental health crisis.

We also need to boost the number of clinicians that treat veterans at the VA. In one study, 70 percent of VA mental health care providers reported they lacked the staff or space to adequately care for the veterans they serve. That must change. So we’ll recruit more providers by raising pay and slashing red tape for new VA clinicians.

And when nearly 5 million veterans live in rural areas, it is critical to expand access to treatment. Through a pilot program called Connected Care, our plan will supplement in-person care with increased access to tele-health, tele-therapy, and tele-psychiatry, so that a veteran in crisis can videoconference with a therapist from the comfort of his or her own home.

Our veterans have made tremendous sacrifices to protect us. America can do more than say “thank you for your service.” It’s time we kept our promise to veterans by making sure they have the care they need. When I’m president, we will.


Buttigieg is mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a Democratic candidate for president.

