Moulton Taps Suicide Prevention Advocate as State of the Union Guest

SALEM — Congressman Seth Moulton, who made mental health care for veterans and others a hallmark of his short run for president last year, invited a local mental health and suicide prevention advocate as his guest for Tuesday night's State of the Union address.

Moulton's guest was Kim Burditt, senior manager of programs and logistics for suicide prevention at the Washington, D.C.-based national nonprofit Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. TAPS supports those grieving the loss of a loved one whose life included military service.

Moulton is teaming up with Burditt, a Wakefield resident, to urge Congress to pass policies that help prevent suicide and break the stigma around those seeking mental health treatment. Burditt is in the process of earning her Master of Social Work from Salem State University, from which she graduated in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in mass communications/media studies.

Since its founding in 1994, TAPS has created a national peer support network offering free support to more than 90,000 survivors of military loss.

“Suicide is hard to talk about," Moulton said in a statement, "which is why Kim’s story is so amazing — after facing unimaginable tragedy, she’s sharing her experience to help save lives. I know how much it means to be able to talk to someone who understands what you’re going through, and Kim does that for fellow Americans every day.”

Burditt lost her only sibling, Marine Corps veteran Jon Hoffman, to suicide in 2010. Since then, she has made it her career to care for suicide loss survivors and prevent suicide.

“It is an honor to walk alongside and support those who grieve the suicide death of a loved one,” Burditt said in a statement. “In my work at TAPS, I have the unique opportunity to support survivors through the use of our Suicide Postvention Model, which allows us to stabilize suicide-specific issues after loss, provide companionship to these survivors during the difficult work of grief, and then guide them on a pathway toward healing and post-traumatic growth.”

TAPS has supported more than 14,000 survivors of military loss over the last 10 years. As senior manager, Burditt is responsible for organizing events, retreats and trainings for survivors, including the annual TAPS National Military Suicide Survivor Seminar. Before joining TAPS, Burditt organized training sessions for adult suicide prevention in Massachusetts. She is married to "a 100% post-traumatic stress-disabled veteran."

During his run for the Democratic presidential nomination, Moulton spoke publicly for the first time that he was managing post-traumatic stress from his four tours of duty as a Marine Corps infantry officer in Iraq. He said he wanted to break the stigma that keeps people from getting help with their mental health struggles.

He spoke about being haunted by the image of a young boy he saw while Moulton was a platoon commander in 2003. The boy was injured and writhing in pain on the road to Baghdad. Instead of stopping to help, Moulton made the "right decision" to drive around the boy and press on. After returning from the war in 2008, he decided to seek mental health support while in graduate school. That treatment, he said, has made a difference.

Since his revelation, Moulton has introduced plans to make mental health checkups more routine.

In December, the defense bill that was signed into law included a plan Moulton drafted to require every member of the armed forces to receive a mental health checkup within 21 days of returning home from a deployment.

Moulton has used mental health policy issues as a way to build bipartisan support among members of Congress. With fellow veteran Chris Stewart, a Republican congressman from Utah, and Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, Moulton introduced a bill to designate 9-8-8 as a national mental health crisis or concern hotline.

The National Suicide Hotline Designation Act has 133 bipartisan cosponsors in the House. In December, the Senate version of the bill passed unanimously through the Senate Commerce Committee, which is controlled by Republicans. Also that month, the FCC voted to move forward with rules to make 9-8-8 a national mental health hotline.