Veterans make up 8.5 percent of America's adult population but account for 18 percent of its suicides. In the past year, according to new data from the Veterans Affairs Department, 7,403 veterans killed themselves. That is about 20 deaths a day.
    This is a national emergency, and attacking it is the primary mission of the V.A.'s Veterans Crisis Line, a call center based in Canandaigua, N.Y. through phone conversations, online chats and text messages, trained operators listen and console, contact the police and hospitals if necessary, and steer callers to mental health care. Since 2007, the crisis line has been an all-purpose safety net for many thousands of veterans in free call.
    The V.A.'s inspector general reported in February that calls were going unanswered or being sent to voice mail or backup call centers outside the V.A. The report raised questions about poor training and oversight, citing one center where staff members had never answered voice mail messages because they didn't know the voice mail system existed. A report in May from the Government Accountability Office found that the Crisis Line was failing to meet its goals for phone response times, and not answering all its text messages.
    The V.A. deserves much of its bad reputation. But even the department's harshest critics have to admit that veterans are often better off inside the V.A. than out. The V.A.'s data show that suicide rates are highest among veterans who are 50 and older and those who do not receive V.A. care.
    The only real solution is to sign up more veterans, and to serve them better, with greater access to mental health care and a well-run crisis center that has the staffing, oversight and attention needed for its critical mission. The V.A. says it has been working to fix things. It has updated phone systems so calls do not go to voice mail. It says it has hired dozens of people and will soon have more than 300 trained responders. It is expanding mental health care for women and redoubling efforts to identify patients at high risk for suicide.
    Public confidence in the V.A., sorely tested, will not be repaired until the appalling suicide rate goes down, and watchdogs have no more appalling lapses to write about.  It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that ______.