Veterans told Sen. Michael Bennet that they want more resources for county-level support services and suicide prevention during a discussion Tuesday at the Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center in Colorado Springs.

Having served at the federal level for 16 years, Bennet said he wanted to learn how he could best serve the military community at the state level if elected governor.

Among the most persistent issues facing veterans is suicide. This is especially pronounced in Colorado, which in 2022 saw 178 veteran suicides, significantly higher than the national average, according to the latest Veterans Affairs data.

Mt. Carmel started Next Chapter to provide veterans with wraparound support to combat veterans’ suicide. It fosters wellness rather waiting for a crisis, and advocates say it has been successful.

In El Paso County, 63 veterans died by suicide in 2023, state health data show. The next year, the total was 36, with the decline likely attributable to Next Chapter, according to program organizers.

“We served 1,200 in three years, and out of 1,200, no suicides,” said Bob McLaughlin, the executive director of Mt. Carmel and a retired Army colonel.

Next Chapter received $4.6 million over the course of two fiscal years. But as Colorado struggled to balance its budget, the state money dried up. Late last year, the Region 16 Opioid Abatement Council approved $1.5 million annually for Next Chapter for up to three years to work with veterans and their family members who are dealing with the results of the opioid epidemic in El Paso and Teller counties.

McLaughlin thinks the way forward is through public and private partnerships.

“It took a lot of red tape away, put the money where it needed to be spent, and it was really successful,” he said.

More staff members at the county level across the state are also needed to help those separating from the military, McLaughlin said.

Veteran service officers help connect vets with the Veterans Affairs benefits they’ve earned. These benefits include monthly payments for disabilities. But often the county-level officers are overtasked and asked to do much more than just paperwork, McLaughlin and several others attending said.

Mt. Carmel has tried to alleviate the strain on county employees by employing veteran resource officers to help veterans with needs beyond federally provided benefits. McLaughlin would like to see more funding for the additional staff either from state or private sources.

“The whole premise is the veteran service officer focuses on the benefits and the resource officer helps with other things,” McLaughlin said. “(Veteran service officers) would focus specifically on the benefits, and that’s a big process. … And the resource officer is like, ‘Do you need food? We have a food pantry.’ ‘You need a medical appointment? We’ll help you with that.’”

After the meeting, Bennet emphasized the importance of not cutting promising programs, saying it is important to replicate successes when they emerge.

“We have to make sure that the stuff that is making a big difference, the stuff that is working well, that we keep doing that,” he said following the meeting. “Our veterans’ lives are too significant to treat it otherwise.”