VA OIG Psychiatrist Discusses VHA's Lethal Means Safety Training, Firearms Access Assessment, and Safety Planning

Veteran Oversight Now

In this episode of Veteran Oversight Now, host Fred Baker chats with Dr. Beth Winter, a psychiatrist with the VA OIG’s Office of Healthcare Inspections. They discuss her path from wanting to provide care for exotic animals to choosing to be “a people doctor instead of an animal doctor.” Dr. Winter’s distinguished career eventually led the granddaughter and daughter of veterans to the VA OIG helping provide oversight of VHA’s health care system. In this podcast, Dr. Winter discusses her work related to the prevention of veteran suicide by lethal means in the recently released report Deficiencies in Lethal Means Safety Training, Firearms Access Assessment, and Safety Planning for Patients with Suicidal Behaviors by Firearms. She explains that the time between a veteran deciding to act and actually attempting suicide can be just five or 10 minutes and relatively simple interventions during that period can be critical in preventing suicide. This month’s episode concludes with a summary of the VA OIG’s oversight highlights for December 2022.

“That window is really between the decision to act and the action itself and … we also know that if there was some barrier to accessing a person’s initial method for suicide—for example a gun lock, or a gun being placed in a safe, or a gun being separated from ammunition within the house—that gives people time to either reconsider their action, or they might make the attempt with a method that’s significantly less lethal. So, if we can increase that window between the decision to act and the action itself, we significantly increase the possibility of that person’s survival.” – Dr. Beth Winter

Related Report:

Deficiencies in Lethal Means Safety Training, Firearms Access Assessment, and Safety Planning for Patients with Suicidal Behaviors by Firearms