Can $20 million and 40 Innovators Reduce Veteran Suicide? You’ll Know in November
In an act of desperation or a brilliant tactical stroke — or both — the Veterans Administration this spring launched a campaign called Mission Daybreak. Its purpose: to publicly reach out to locate innovators who can come up with suicide prevention solutions that can carve away at the average of 18–20 veterans per day who are taking their own lives — almost 700 per year.
The stats make clear the need to aggressively challenge these numbers.
After heart disease (at 20%), the second leading cause of deaths among veterans is suicide. In the U.S. adult population, heart disease at 38.8% is the leading cause of death, and suicide comes in ninth place at 1.8%. Vets comprise only 8% of the U.S. population, but 14% of Americans committing suicide in 2019–6,261!
In it to win it!
Over 1,300 individuals and organizations — including our own team from Let’s Rethink This (LRT) — submitted “Concept Papers” as a requirement to qualify as an entrant in this Grand Challenge. As the VA described them/us:
“From individual experts to transformative partnerships, solvers included veterans, veterans service organizations (VSOs’s), community-based organizations, health tech companies, startups and universities…from remote peer…
