Plain Language Summary
# BRAVE Act of 2025 - Plain Language Summary The BRAVE Act is a bill designed to improve mental health services for veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Key provisions include: allowing the VA to temporarily hire mental health counselors who don't yet have full licenses (to address staffing shortages), expanding and increasing funding for the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program, and requiring Vet Centers (specialized VA facilities for veteran support) to regularly assess what obstacles veterans and staff face in accessing or providing mental health care. The bill also directs the VA to improve outreach efforts and guidance for these centers. The legislation primarily affects veterans and active-duty service members seeking mental health support, as well as VA staff and mental health professionals.
It aims to address gaps in mental health care availability and accessibility across the VA system, with particular attention to suicide prevention. Currently, the bill is in committee, meaning it's still in early stages of the legislative process and hasn't yet been voted on by the full Senate.
CRS Official Summary
Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement Act of 2025 or the BRAVE Act of 2025This bill addresses mental health services and care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including matters related to personnel, Vet Center administration, care for women veterans, and access to care.The bill authorizes the VA to waive the licensure or certification requirement for individual licensed professional mental health counselor appointees for a reasonable period of time.The bill also extends the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program and increases the maximum annual grant amount.The VA must provide Vet Centers with guidance for assessing outreach activities and implement processes to periodically assess the extent to which (1) veterans and eligible members of the Armed Forces experience barriers to obtaining services at Vet Centers, and (2) Vet Center staff may encounter barriers to providing services.Among other requirements, the VA must alsosurvey and host listening sessions with women veterans to gauge the effectiveness of the VA’s suicide prevention, lethal-means safety, and mental health resources and messaging campaigns;initiate efforts to modify the Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET) program to incorporate risk factors weighted for women;annually offer a mental health consultation to veterans who are receiving compensation for a service-connected disability relating to a mental health diagnosis; andimplement a pilot program to provide access to mental health residential treatment programs for veterans with a spinal cord injury or disorder.
Latest Action
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.