STMSS03 Dr. Matt Miller - VA Office of Suicide Prevention

About Today’s Guest:

Dr. Matt Miller is currently the Acting Director for Suicide Prevention, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention for the Department of Veterans Affairs. He was appointed the permanent Director of the Veterans Crisis Line on July 23, 2017. Dr. Miller joined the VA in January of 2012 as the Chief of Mental Health at the Saginaw VAMC in Saginaw, Michigan.  He has been detailed to the national mental health office as a Technical Assistance Specialist and as Senior Consultant for National Mental Health Technical Assistance.  Before coming to VCL, Dr. Miller served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Saginaw VAMC, with responsibility and oversight of facility-wide access and quality, assisting Saginaw with achieving and maintaining a 5-star ranking by facility complexity in the nation on SAIL.  Within his role as Director of the VCL, Dr. Miller has been privileged to be a part of a team that has created and implemented a third call center in Topeka, KS, has increased total staffing to 900+ FTE becoming the world’s largest crisis call center, has achieved a 96 percent reduction in Rollover calls to the backup call center, has developed an industry-leading Quality and Training program, has achieved certification via nationally-recognized oversight organizations, and has innovated cutting edge research projects in the field of suicide prevention.

Dr. Miller received his PhD from Michigan State University, East Lansing, and his MPH from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  He completed a professional clinical psychology internship via the United States Air Force (USAF), Wright Patterson Medical Center, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.  Thereafter, he was assigned to Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma, as Chief of Mental Health.  Miller was awarded “Officer of the Year” representing the 71st Medical Group in 2003; in the same year, he was awarded the USAF “Cutting Edge Award” for program development and outcomes addressing and treating Complicated Airsickness Management for Pilots.”

Links Mentioned in this Episode:

VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention

2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report 

Episode Sponsor:

milMedia Group

Shauna's latest book: Beyond the Military: A Leader's Handbook for Warrior Reintegration

Duane's latest book: Military in the Rear View Mirror: Mental Health and Wellness in Post-Military Life

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Episode Transcript:

Duane France: (00:00) Welcome to episode three of the Seeking the Military Suicide Solution Podcast brought to you by the military times. I'm Duane France.

Shauna Springer: (00:07) and I'm doc Shauna Springer.

Duane France: (00:09) and we'd like to thank you for taking the time to learn more about suicide in the military affiliated population. I'd also like to thank our sponsors, milMedia group. Milmedia group is a proven web design and digital media agency specializing in supporting organizations focusing on the military population. Find out more about them at milmediagroup.com

Duane France: (00:38) Thanks again to everybody for joining us to listen to an honest conversation about service member veteran and military family suicide. The response to the concept of the show has been outstanding. It's generating a lot of conversation and that's what we're trying to do. Our guest today is Dr. Matt Miller, Acting Director for Suicide Prevention for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Shauna?

Shauna Springer: (01:00) Today we're pleased to bring Matt Miller onto the show. As Duane said, his official role as Acting Director for Suicide Prevention for the Department of Veterans Affairs, but like other guests, this is not a job. It's personal. The back story is this: many years ago, Matt Miller was the only psychologist on Vance air force base in Enid, Oklahoma. In this role, he was in charge of mental health for the entire base. He led all efforts related to suicide prevention, family advocacy, substance abuse treatment, and critical incident response services. He also became part of the inner circle of major John Ruocco. By all accounts, John was the kind of guy that lit up a room, a decorated Cobra pilot. He was someone who had more than 75 combat missions under his belt and John was a rock for many people, including Matt Miller. John was also someone that never fully revealed the depth of his hidden pain, even to those who love him most. When John died by suicide in February, 2005 the grief that initially engulfed those closest to him later fueled an explosion of posttraumatic growth. John's wife, Kim Ruocco, who will be featured on a future episode of Seeking the Military Suicide Solution, has led efforts to develop and refine what is now the leading postvention model in the country. And Matt Miller went on to become the director of the veteran's crisis line and is now the acting national director for suicide prevention for the department of veterans affairs.

Duane France: (02:32) Yeah, it's really great to hear Matt's background and like we've talked about even in the introductory episode, you know, the reasons why people come to this work are often very personal and that's definitely the way it was with Matt. So let's get into the conversation and we'll come back afterwards to pull out some of the key points.

Duane France: (03:01) The work that you're doing now and the work that you've done before focusing on suicide in the veteran population with the VA. What do we know that works with preventing suicide in the veteran population?

Dr. Matt Miller: (03:16) Hmm. We know...that's a question that we all are constantly asking in the context of such an important issue where lives are truly on the line on a daily basis. In terms of what we know works. We know that a public health approach to suicide prevention is evidence-based and work. A public health approach means that...kinda consider it like an equation, where you have an equal sign and on the right hand side of the equal sign you have public health approach. So really then what's on the left hand side of the equal sign, there's two things. Number one, there's clinically based interventions and then number two, there's community based intervention. And they, those two clinically based interventions and community bas...