Never Fight Alone Act

Section 3 (Expanding Access to Community Care): This provision helps veterans get mental health or substance-use residential care faster by allowing them to use community providers if the Department cannot accommodate their priority admission or meet access standards. This is a positive step for individuals struggling to get timely help within the Department.

Section 3 (Protecting Veteran Choice on Referrals): Under section 3(a)(1)(B), the Secretary must ensure that referring a veteran to a different Department program does not delay timely community care unless the veteran actually requests that referral. This puts the veteran's timeline and choice ahead of internal Department routing.

Section 3 (Quality Standards for Facilities): This part ensures that community residential mental health and substance-use programs must be licensed and accredited by a State and accredited by organizations like the Joint Commission Behavioral Health Standards or the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. This helps protect people by making sure outside facilities meet basic quality rules.

Section 4 (Veteran Choice of Options): Section 4 adds a rule stating that if multiple care options are available, the Secretary must let the veteran pick the option they prefer. This gives the people we voted for accountability to respect individual veteran preferences in healthcare decisions.