The Grunt Style Foundation is pushing safer prescribing practices and full transparency from clinicians to patients about potential side effects of certain drugs.
SAN ANTONIO — A group of military organizations and community groups gathered at VFW Post 76 for an emergency meeting focused on strengthening mental health support for veterans nationwide.
The meeting comes just one week after U.S. Marine veteran Enrique Ramos Jr., 33, died by suicide in the parking lot of the Audie Murphy VA Medical Center, which has shaken the veteran community and renewed calls for reform.
The coalition of veterans organizations touched on the challenges former service members face and the gaps in care that persist.
“This is not a VA issue, this is an American issue,” said Derek Blumke, Grunt Style Foundation Impact Fellow.
Speakers shared personal stories, underscoring the life-or-death consequences of inadequate mental health care. Army Captain Le Roy Torres, co-founder of Burn Pits 360, recounted his own crisis moment.
“I almost became a statistic,” Torres said.
He credits his survival to support systems and his service dog.
“By God’s grace I stand here today. My service dog, his name was Hope. He saved my life in 2016.”
The recent suicide deaths of Ramos and Navy veteran Mark Miller have amplified concerns among advocates.
“This is the second suicide at the Audie Murphy VA in the last eight months,” said Will Wisner, executive director of the Grunt Style Foundation. “But this is the 18th instance of veterans taking their lives on a VA property that I’m aware of nationwide.”
Wisner criticized what he described as the over-prescription of psychiatric medications to veterans. While not calling for a ban, he argued for safer prescribing practices and full transparency communicated from clinicians to patients about potential side effects before taking such drugs. The organization is pushing legislation that would accomplish change for the betterment of veterans and service members.
“Not everybody is going to have these catastrophic events,” Wisner said. “But there’s a lot of them that do. Until we demand informed consent, making our veterans know what the risks are.”
Other advocates stressed that collaboration is essential to preventing further tragedy. Mike Gonzales the San Antonio outreach director for the Birdwell Foundation for PTSD, said the coalition aims to connect veterans with life-saving resources, from crisis lines to peer-support organizations.
“We are coming together for a common purpose,” Gonzales said. “A coalition of the willing to say that together we can make a difference and expose this better to our veterans so that they can call crisis lines, organizations that are there for them.”
For anyone in crisis, you can call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline by dialing or texting 988.