On June 30, the Female Veteran Suicide Prevention Act was approved by the president as Public Law 114-188. Women veterans are six times as likely as nonveteran women to commit suicide, according to VA researchers. Women veterans ages 18-29, many of whom have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, are 12 times as likely to die by suicide.

The Department of Defense has been working for years to develop and implement programs that can increase resilience and prevent mental health conditions resulting from wartime exposures. Most of these programs are focused on individual-level interventions to address various aspects of resilience and psychological health.

Women veterans are especially vulnerable and have higher rates of suicide than male veterans, according to research released in July by the VA, which collected data from 55 million records from 1979 to 2014. The data show women veterans are almost twice as likely as men to commit suicide.

According to DAV’s report Women Veterans: The Long Journey Home, a comprehensive study of the many challenges women face when they leave military service, suicidal behavior is often associated with mental health problems including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and substance-use disorder.

The new law will initiate a complete re-evaluation of how women veterans are screened and treated when they enter VA health care. It will require the VA to evaluate suicide prevention and mental health programs with women-specific metrics.

“All veterans deserve thorough research and dedication to ending the suicide epidemic,” said DAV Assistant National Service Director Shurhonda Love. “We must ensure health care providers have effective treatment options to lower the risk for chronic mental health conditions and prevent suicide for our women veterans as well.”