Suicide Prevention Awareness Month: Why Outreach Design Matters as Much as the Message
September is National Suicide Prevention Month. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has answered more than 13 million calls, texts, and chats since it launched in July 2022, and awareness of that resource keeps growing. But for the populations most at risk, awareness of a hotline is not the same as reach. Who delivers the message, and how, often determines whether it lands.
Veteran Suicide Is an Outreach Problem, Not Only a Clinical One
The VA’s most recent National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report found that 6,398 veterans died by suicide in 2023, a decrease of 44 from the year before and the lowest total in 14 of the past 15 years. That progress is real. It also came with a harder finding: 61% of veterans who died by suicide in 2023 were not receiving VA health care in the year before their death. Pain was the most frequently identified risk factor among veterans who died by suicide between 2021 and 2023.
The Veterans Crisis Line, reachable at 988 (press 1), handled 1.3 million calls, chats, and texts in fiscal year 2025, a 39% increase over the prior year, with a 97% satisfaction rate among those who used it. The tool works. The open question for every agency serving veterans is how to reach the veteran who has not yet called.
What the Wicked Bionic Team Learned Building Outreach for the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs
The Wicked Bionic team designed and developed a statewide paid media campaign for the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs (ODVA) supporting veteran mental health, built around BeyondTheMilitaryUniform.com. The challenge was reach, not awareness: veterans across generations, geographies, and circumstances who would never see a resource built with only one audience in mind.
Since September 2024, the campaign has driven more than 198,000 veterans, family members, and caregivers to the site, reached over 60,000 rural households, and generated 267 outbound referrals to VA resources. Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s proclamation of Oregon Veteran Suicide Prevention Awareness Week named the BeyondTheMilitaryUniform.com platform among the state’s community-based resources for veterans.
The Lesson Applies to Past Veterans
Behavioral health, chronic disease, food insecurity, homelessness: the audiences change, but the pattern holds. A prevention resource only works for the person who trusts the messenger enough to use it. That means messaging built for the specific community it is meant to reach, delivered through the channels that community actually uses, not the ones that are easiest to buy.
This is the work the Wicked Bionic team does for government and mission-driven clients: turning a message that is true into a message that reaches the people who need it.
If You or Someone You Know Is Struggling
Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org, for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7. Veterans, service members, and their families can reach the Veterans Crisis Line by dialing 988 then pressing 1, texting 838255, or chatting online. The Crisis Text Line is also available by texting TALK to 741741.
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About the Author
Dana C. Arnett, Founder and CEO of Wicked Bionic, spent 30 years in the entertainment business before starting the agency in 2015. Los Angeles-based multicultural communications and advertising agency works with government and private sector clients on strategic marketing and engaging media campaigns. Dana has always been drawn to learning from other cultures. That curiosity became the foundation for Wicked Bionic’s approach to culturally responsive marketing – building authentic connections between organizations and the communities they serve.
