PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 117-501.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Jun 24, 2021
Revising and Expediting Actions for the Crisis Hotline for Veterans Act or the REACH for Veterans Act
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to update training and procedures for call responders of the Veterans Crisis Line.
Specifically, the VA must enter into an agreement with an outside organization to review the training for crisis line call responders. The VA must update the training if any deficiencies are identified after the review.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Among other requirements, the VA must
develop guidelines on retraining and quality management for when a call responder has an adverse event or needs improvement,
annually perform a common cause analysis for identified callers to the crisis line who died by suicide in situations where the crisis line was the last point of contact,
develop enhanced guidance and procedures to respond to calls to the crisis line related to substance use and overdose risk,
review the current emergency dispatch standard operating procedure of the crisis line, and
solicit feedback from veterans service organizations on how to conduct outreach regarding the move to 988 as the new suicide and mental health crisis hotline.
Each call responder must be subject to at least two calls per month that are silently monitored by a supervisor to check for quality of conduct.
The Veterans Crisis Line, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention of the VA, and National Center for Patient Safety of the VA must establish quality management processes and expectations for staff of the crisis line.
People & committees
Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT] · D–MT
Legislative record
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Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 117-501.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: May 29, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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