The Department of Veterans Affairs is wrestling with a harsh reality: its latest annual numbers show that slightly fewer veterans died by suicide in 2023, yet the risk for those who remain is still going up. The new federal analysis counts 6,398 veteran suicide deaths in 2023 and finds that most of those who died had not been in recent VA care, even as private coalitions and federal grants pour tens of millions of dollars into prevention efforts.
What the VA report found
The VA's National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, which analyzes data through 2023, reports that the overall veteran suicide rate rose to 35.2 per 100,000 veterans in 2023, up from 34.7 the year before, even as the raw count of deaths dropped to 6,398. According to the report, about 61% of veterans who died by suicide in 2023 had not used VA health care in the year before their death, and firearms were involved in roughly three-quarters of those suicides.
The report also highlights outreach work that brought more than 33,000 previously unenrolled veterans into the VA system and notes that the agency announced additional Staff Sgt. Parker Gordon Fox grant funds last year. More detail is available from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
How Face the Fight is responding
In parallel to the federal push, Face the Fight, a private-public coalition launched in 2023 by USAA with founding partners Reach Resilience and the Humana Foundation, is trying to change the trajectory by 2032. The campaign says its goal is to drive a dramatic reduction in the veteran suicide rate over the next decade.
According to 2024 progress materials, Face the Fight has awarded more than $25 million in grants to evidence-informed programs and models its long-term impact as potentially saving roughly 6,500 lives by 2032. The coalition's strategy centers on expanding suicide risk screenings, training clinicians in suicide-specific treatments, and scaling lethal-means safety work, as described in a coalition progress release reported by Business Wire and on the coalition's own site, Face the Fight.
Money, grants and boots-on-the-ground
Coalition leaders say the money is not staying in conference rooms. They describe a network of local grantees that screen veterans for suicide risk, connect them with care, and put practical support in place.
Chris Ford, Face the Fight's lead at USAA, told MyFOX28 Columbus that the coalition has invested more than $42 million in direct grants since it launched in 2023. A separate profile by KSAT highlighted several of those local projects, including programs that connect veterans to crisis care and promote safe-storage options for firearms.
Face the Fight and its partners say they are committed to measuring outcomes and backing interventions that can be expanded to reach veterans who are outside traditional VA health care, not just those already in the system.
Why the rate can rise even as deaths fall
Public-health observers say the seemingly contradictory trend, fewer deaths but a higher rate, is a statistical byproduct of a shrinking veteran population. With a smaller number of veterans overall, the per-100,000 rate can climb even when the absolute number of suicides ticks down.
Reporting by Stars and Stripes points to demographic shifts and concentrated risk among younger veterans and those living with traumatic brain injuries, homelessness, chronic pain, or financial stress as key drivers of the pattern described in the VA analysis.
Where veterans can turn for help
Both federal and private efforts land on the same basic point: getting veterans into care is crucial. VA facilities offer same-day emergency mental-health access, and the federal grants program is designed to expand the capacity of community providers so that help is not limited to VA campuses.
Veterans in crisis can reach the Veterans Crisis Line by calling 988 and pressing 1, texting 838255, or visiting VeteransCrisisLine.net. Local organizations funded by Face the Fight and Staff Sgt. Parker Gordon Fox grant awards are being set up to spot at-risk veterans who are outside VA care and link them to crisis support and follow-up services.
The new VA numbers underscore how difficult prevention work will be. The raw toll remains high, the rate is stubborn, and the next phase of federal and philanthropic efforts will be judged on whether they can reach veterans who are not already tied into VA services. For now, officials and advocates say that expanding screening, having more conversations about lethal-means safety, and improving access to evidence-based treatment are still the clearest paths to change.
