Veterans suffering mental illness will finally get the government care they need and have earned. That assumes the U.S. Senate and President Donald Trump follow the lead of a unanimous voice vote last week in the House of Representatives.

Passage came two days after a mass shooting at a Texas church by a gunman who had a record of mental health issues while serving in the Air Force.

An Iraq war veteran who killed three and wounded 16 at Fort Hood in 2014 had a history of depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders known to the Army.

As detailed in The Gazette Pulitzer Prize winning project “Other than Honorable,” mental illness linked to military related trauma leads to homelessness, crimes and a litany of other problems that adversely affect military and civilian society.

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., initiated the legislation in response to The Gazette investigation, which exposed how a significant number of troops lose their Department of Veterans Affairs benefits over misconduct associated with war-caused mental illness.

“The Gazette documented a rise in misconduct discharges for wounded and mentally ill troops, including an email sent between leaders at Fort Carson that encouraged use of other-than-honorable discharges to get soldiers out,” explained a story Tuesday by Gazette senior military reporter Tom Roeder.

“What was so insidious about it all is the Army decided to thin its ranks using this process,” Coffman said Tuesday.

As explained by Roeder, the VA this year voluntarily began offering emergency mental health services to troops with other-than-honorable discharges. The Coffman bill would make the agency offer full-spectrum psychological care, including long-term therapy for those with war-caused mental illness.

A study cited by Coffman shows that more than 60 percent of soldiers kicked out after 2011 with conduct-related discharges suffered a mental malady.

“Over the 16 years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is estimated that 20 percent of deployed troops come home with some form of mental illness including post-traumatic stress,” Roeder said.

Coffman has seen the destructive effects of war. He served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War with the Marine Corps and returned to Iraq with the Corps in 2005.

Another Coffman bill, awaiting passage in the House, addresses a concern raised by a Gazette investigation into the death of Colorado Springs Marine veteran Noah Harter. The vet died days after seeking help from the VA for suicidal thoughts. The VA prescribed potentially dangerous medication but afforded Harter no follow-up care.

Coffman’s bill would require the VA to assign an outside agency to study veteran suicides and the government’s use of medications on suicidal patients.

Our entire culture, not just the military, has wrongly stigmatized and marginalized mental health for far too long. Schools, families, churches and other institutions pay increasing attention to nutrition, physical health, attentive driving and substance abuse. Meanwhile, they neglect early education and intervention that could affect widespread improvements in mental health.

Unanimous approval of Coffman’s bill signals a good start toward a move in the right direction. Much more needs to be done. A country with poor mental health will never resolve issues of crime, poverty, homelessness and other suffering. Make Coffman’s bill a law and a tipping point in a movement to improve the country’s collective mental health.