NORFOLK, Va. - Following a mental health issue last summer, Kody Decker's mother says he was reassigned to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center at Naval Station Norfolk and put on limited duty.
"He wasn't working on the equipment that he was used and being around...just the people," Melissa Will told News 3 in December.
Last October, Decker took his own life. He was one of four Sailors assigned to MARMC to die by suicide in a short time frame.
"I would imagine there was a sense of sort of just loneliness as well because you're kind of in this new environment, but there was no structure," said Will.
Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) has been following these tragic stories and meeting with leaders in the Navy about how to respond.
"The increase in the number of suicides that we've seen from the Navy, especially in the Hampton Roads area, it's been too many. It's too many across the board," Kiggans told News 3 in an interview on Wednesday.
Kiggans has now introduced the Sailors Standard of Care Act.
Part of the bill requires Sailors on limited duty to get a mental health screening when they go on limited duty and every 60 days after that.
It also requires the Navy to provide mental health resources to commands with more than 15 Sailors on limited duty.
"We know that when we take Sailors out of their mission and we keep them out of the ability to accomplish what they signed up to do that some of them struggle," said Kiggans.
The bill also calls for a study into reimbursement rates for private providers under TRICARE and an examination looking into how long it takes for limited duty Sailors to separate from the Navy if they've been determined to need to leave for a medical reason.
It also directs the Navy to create an online dashboard to share information about Sailors' quality of life, including things like housing and childcare.
"That quality of life issue, I think no matter who you talk to in the military, we have to do better," said Kiggans.
The bill has bipartisan support and is also supported by local Reps. Bobby Scott and Rob Wittman.
It will now go through the process of working its way through Congress.
"As a nurse practitioner, we took a look at what were those daily challenges. What are the challenges commands have that we could tweak and do better and provide that mental healthcare?" said Kiggans.
