September is Suicide Prevention Month, and according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans are at a higher risk of dying by suicide than non-veterans in the U.S.
But what can you do to support the veterans in your life who may be suicidal?
The Steven A. Cohen Family Clinic is a national mental health provider that serves veterans and their families. It launched a public awareness campaign to provide resources to veterans and empower the people around them to ask the hard, but necessary, questions.
HPR spoke with psychologist Holly Scanes, the director of the Cohen Clinic’s Mililani location, to learn more about the program.
The campaign is called “Ask Anyway: Conversations to Save a Life.”
“It encourages and educates folks on how to do that, and helps just try to reduce some of that fear and anxiety about the language.”
The aim of the campaign is to facilitate potentially life-saving discussions about suicide by overcoming the stigma around them.
Additionally, the campaign focuses on concrete ways to lessen the risk of suicide, particularly suicide by firearm.
“Seventy-three percent of veterans who end their life by suicide doing so with a firearm. So that's one of our main priorities is figuring out how to reduce access during those really stressful times,” Scanes explained.
“I think for us, it's all about increasing distance from the moment of that emotional distress, from that crisis moment, to that access to the actual firearm itself.”
The Cohen Clinic partners with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and local mental health clinics in the community to supplement the services they provide.
As Scanes puts it, they focus on “filling gaps … insurance issues, funding concerns, transportation, anything that might get in the way of getting that individual to our clinic, we’re going to work with you on.”
“I think it comes down to the true passion of what we do. It's about serving those who have served our country, our community,” she said.
More information about the Steven A. Cohen Family Clinic in Mililani and their ongoing “Ask Anyway” campaign can be found here.
Editor's note: If you are in crisis, the Veterans Crisis Line is available 24/7. Dial 988, then press 1, or text 838255.
This story aired on The Conversation on Sept. 22, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
