Like so many across the U.S., the overall rate of mental health issues among veterans has increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

A group with historically high levels of behavioral issues, the rate of suicide is also higher among veterans than the general population. In 2019, the suicide rate was 52% higher than the rate among non-veterans in the U.S, according to a National Veteran Suicide Prevention report.

In response to a troubling trend that existed prior to the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has launched a campaign that aims to address that disparity.

The campaign, Mission Daybreak, will involve an innovation challenge to develop new strategies for suicide prevention among veterans, and will funnel $20 million into it.

According to Amanda Purnell, director of data and analytics innovation at the VA, suicide prevention is a “deeply important, high priority mission.”

“We wanted to publicly engage and build a community of solvers from diverse backgrounds and perspectives to catalyze new collaborative insights and innovations,” Purnell said. “The goal is to have an impact on veteran mental health and wellness, as well as methods by which we can optimize systems already in place.”

Mission Daybreak’s focus areas include using digital footprint data, boosting access to the Veterans Crisis Line and assisting the transition from military to civilian life.

“Innovation can take many forms,” Purnell said. “We know any compelling solution to a multi-faceted, complex problem like suicide will require a multi-faceted, multi-system complex solution lens. We expect that technology can break open new information and insights and that human systems and ingenuity can unlock new ideas. We don’t want to limit the vision of the challenge participants by narrowing the scope of the possible.”

The first part of the challenge is a call for open submissions from industry members, researchers, clinicians and other health innovators to send in ideas by July. From there, 30 finalists will receive $250,000 to move onto the second phase, which involves an eight-week virtual accelerator.

After developing their technologies, finalists will meet with judges, stakeholders and investors – then two first-place winners will receive $3 million each, three second-place winners will receive $1 million each and five third-place winners will receive $500,000 each.

The campaign is part of the VA’s larger push to embrace health innovation. In 2020, the VA launched the Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning with the goal of boosting grassroots innovation to improve well-being among veterans.

“We’re hoping this is just the start of building an even stronger and more cohesive community of collaborative problem-solvers who work together to bring insights and action to care for veterans,” Purnell said.