# Green Star Families Act: Plain Language Summary

This bill creates a free counseling program for families and caregivers who have lost a veteran to suicide. Specifically, it provides mental health counseling services to the immediate family members of veterans who died by suicide—including parents, spouses, children, and step-family members—as well as to people who volunteered to care for these veterans before their death. The Department of Veterans Affairs would run this program and make sure the counseling is accessible and of good quality, either by providing it directly or by partnering with other organizations like nonprofits or state agencies.

The bill recognizes that losing a loved one to suicide is traumatic, and family members and caregivers often struggle with grief, guilt, and their own mental health afterward. By offering free counseling, the program aims to help these survivors process their loss and get the support they need. The VA would also be required to publicize the program on its website and inform eligible families about it so they know this help is available. The law gives the VA 90 days after it's enacted to get the program up and running, meaning eligible families could start accessing these services relatively quickly.

This is a targeted benefit that only applies to people connected to veterans who died by suicide—it doesn't expand benefits to other grieving families or change existing veteran healthcare. The main practical impact is that surviving family members and former volunteer caregivers would have access to professional mental health support at no cost to them, which could help reduce the isolation and emotional burden many experience after losing someone to suicide.

Green Star Families Act

Rep. Van Drew, Jefferson [R-NJ-2]

Green Star Families ActThis bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to furnish counseling services to the next of kin and former volunteer caregivers of certain veterans. The VA must publish information related to the counseling program online and provide information to next of kin and former volunteer caregivers of such veterans. Generally, Green Star families are families of servicemembers and veterans who have died by suicide.