Defense and national security · Veterans

Executive Order 13625: Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families

President: Barack Obama

Expanded crisis support, mental-health staffing, peer services, suicide-prevention work and research for military communities.

Status: Completed/expired. Is Executive Order 13625 still in effect? No. Executive Order 13625 is completed or expired. See Federal Register record.

What does Executive Order 13625 do?

EO 13625 responded to suicide and access concerns by expanding the Veterans Crisis Line, ordering rapid mental-health access, adding VA clinicians and peer counselors, and creating an interagency task force and research plan. VA reported exceeding the order’s 2013 hiring targets. Those one-time deadlines are complete, but crisis services, peer support, mental-health access and joint VA-Defense work continue under statutes and later initiatives.

Administration position: The order expanded capacity and coordination but did not guarantee that every veteran would receive a particular appointment or treatment within a fixed time regardless of clinical and statutory rules.
SignedAugust 31, 2012
VA hiring goal800 peer specialists and 1,600 clinicians
Reported 2013 hires927 peer specialists and 1,669 clinicians

Before and after

Before the order

Veterans and service members faced long waits, fragmented transitions and inconsistent awareness of crisis and peer resources.

After the order

VA expanded staffing and crisis capacity while Defense, VA and HHS coordinated suicide-prevention and research plans.

Who had to do what

Agency / officeActionTiming / position
VAMaintain crisis mental-health and peer-support servicesContinuing
Defense and VACoordinate transitions data and suicide preventionContinuing
Interagency task forceDeliver recommendations and implementation planCompleted

What happened next

EO 13625 issued.