# BRAVE Act of 2025 - Plain Language Summary

## What This Bill Does

The BRAVE Act (Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement Act) is designed to improve mental health services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The bill focuses on four main areas: strengthening the workforce that provides mental health care to veterans, improving Vet Centers (VA counseling facilities), addressing the specific needs of women veterans, and extending various mental health programs. Essentially, it aims to make VA mental health services more accessible, better staffed, and more responsive to veterans' needs.

## Who Benefits

**Veterans** are the primary beneficiaries, particularly those struggling with mental health issues, suicide prevention, and readjustment after military service. **Women veterans** receive special attention through dedicated studies and program modifications. **Mental health professionals** working at the VA—such as counselors, social workers, and therapists—would benefit from efforts to improve pay competitiveness and hiring flexibility. The bill also affects **VA staff and administrators** who must implement new coordination requirements and reporting measures.

## Key Provisions

- **Workforce improvements**: The bill requires the VA to study pay disparities between VA mental health workers and private sector counterparts, and allows more flexibility in hiring qualified counselors and psychologists
- **Vet Center expansion**: Directs studies on how to expand and improve Vet Centers (specialized counseling centers for veterans) and their technology systems
- **Women veterans focus**: Requires the VA to study suicide prevention effectiveness for women veterans and modify risk assessment programs to better account for women's specific needs
- **Mental health access**: Extends suicide prevention grant programs and ensures veterans with spinal cord injuries can access mental health residential treatment
- **Coordination**: Requires better coordination between different VA departments to provide more seamless mental health services

BRAVE Act of 2025

Blumenthal, Richard

Building Resources and Access for Veterans' Mental Health Engagement Act of 2025 or the BRAVE Act of 2025This bill addresses mental health services and care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including matters related to personnel, Vet Center administration, care for women veterans, and access to care.The bill authorizes the VA to waive the licensure or certification requirement for individual licensed professional mental health counselor appointees for a reasonable period of time.The bill also extends the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program and increases the maximum annual grant amount.The VA must provide Vet Centers with guidance for assessing outreach activities and implement processes to periodically assess the extent to which (1) veterans and eligible members of the Armed Forces experience barriers to obtaining services at Vet Centers, and (2) Vet Center staff may encounter barriers to providing services.Among other requirements, the VA must also<ul><li>survey and host listening sessions with women veterans to gauge the effectiveness of the VA’s suicide prevention, lethal-means safety, and mental health resources and messaging campaigns;</li><li>initiate efforts to modify the Recovery Engagement and Coordination for Health-Veterans Enhanced Treatment (REACH VET) program to incorporate risk factors weighted for women;</li><li>annually offer a mental health consultation to veterans who are receiving compensation for a service-connected disability relating to a mental health diagnosis; and</li><li>implement a pilot program to provide access to mental health residential treatment programs for veterans with a spinal cord injury or disorder.</li></ul>