HAMPTON ROADS, Va. - The National Defense Authorization Act is headed to the House floor in Washington D.C., and Representative Jen Kiggans fought to add amendments to increase mental health resources for sailors.
The push for more help comes following a report the Navy put out earlier this year saying they failed their sailors, after a cluster of suicides were reported in a short time frame in 2022.
“It’s still so unbelievable to me that my son’s gone," said Melissa Will, who lost her son Kody Decker to suicide in October. “Did the Navy play a role? Sure. Did Kody play a role? Sure. Did some toxic culture or environment on the Baton maybe get things started? Yes, I do believe that part.”
Decker was one of several sailors who died by suicide in 2022. Representative Kiggans told News 3 their deaths could have been avoided.
“If we lose one sailor to suicide, that’s one too many," said Kiggans. "The Navy can do better."
Kiggans is now pushing for timely mental health assessments for sailors on limited duty. She wants to add an unprompted assessment every 60 days. She has also asked the Navy for a report on the current timeline of getting sailors who are not medically qualified outprocessed.
“We found its upwards of a year sometimes that sailors are left to wonder," said Kiggans.
Will said she is hopeful the measures will save someone else's child.
“I think proactive is the best approach, and I don’t think you know until you try I think it’s a better approach than waiting until terrible things happen," said Will. “The whole trajectory of what we thought was going to be our life or his life has changed.”
Kiggans is also looking into certifying corpsman and chaplains as mental health professionals. Additionally, she's establishing a dashboard to look at quality of life issues like housing, childcare, healthcare accessibility and spouse employment.
Once the NDAA passes the House, the Senate will propose their own version. The two drafts will then be combined and edited, then will go to the President's desk to sign. The current proposed amount for the defense budget is $886 billion.
