INDIANAPOLIS – The man in charge of the V-A says preventing suicide is the agency’s top priority.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie told the American Legion’s national conference in Indianapolis 20 veterans a day kill themselves, about double the rate of the rest of the population. He says the V-A has begun mental health screenings for everyone who comes to a V-A hospital, regardless of what brought them there. And active-duty troops now hear more about the need to deal with suicidal thoughts, not suppress them.

But Wilkie warns the V-A can’t do it alone, because 70-percent of those suicides never come to the V-A in the first place. He says the Legion and state and local groups need to play a more active role.

One of every six suicides in the U-S is a veteran. More than half of those are senior citizens, and most of those served in Vietnam. In Indiana, 70 veterans killed themselvs in 2016, the most recent year for which state data are available.