How Vet Hub handles a crisis

A strip across the top of the website and of the app shows the Veterans Crisis Line in English and Spanish at the same time, whatever language you have chosen. The strip is a large link that starts a phone call to the Veterans Crisis Line, with a small TTY link at its end.

If the app does not load, a plain version of the same strip is built into the first page your browser receives, so it still appears when scripts or styles fail. The error screen, the maintenance page and the screen that asks you to update the app carry it too. If our servers are down, the strip is still there: it does not depend on them.

The page footer opens a crisis dialog, the assistant screen shows "In crisis? Dial 988 then Press 1." above the conversation, and our emails carry a reminder in your language.

Two separate checks run. Either one is enough to show you the Veterans Crisis Line.

Check 1 runs on your own device, before anything else. When you send a message, a phrase check looks for English and Spanish phrases about suicide, self-harm, being unable to go on, wanting to die, and wanting to harm someone else. If one matches, a Veterans Crisis Line card appears in the conversation at once, whatever the AI does next. The check is built to show the card too often rather than too rarely, so you may see it when you did not need it. It cannot catch every way a person might say something, which is why there is a second check.

Check 2 is the assistant's own instructions. When you say or imply thoughts of suicide or self-harm, feeling hopeless or like a burden, having a plan, being in danger, severe distress, or wanting to harm someone, it must show the Veterans Crisis Line card as its first action, answer in one or two calm sentences, encourage you to contact the Veterans Crisis Line in the program's own words, and stay with you. It is told not to minimize what you feel, not to question you to judge how severe it is, not to give coping tips as its main answer, and not to switch to another task. If your message also asked about a benefit, that question waits, so the Veterans Crisis Line does not become one item on a list.

The card offers Dial 988 then Press 1, text 838255 and online chat, and says the Veterans Crisis Line is free, confidential and open 24/7.

If you are only stressed and not in crisis, the assistant may acknowledge what you said in a sentence and then offer practical help with documents or benefits. It is an AI, not a person, and it does not provide mental-health care.

When your message matches the phrase check on your device, Vet Hub shows no sponsor suggestion on that turn.

While you type a thread, a reply or a direct message, a notice with the Veterans Crisis Line appears as soon as your words match the same phrase check: Dial 988 then Press 1, or text 838255. The notice also appears under a post after it is published.

You are never blocked from posting because of crisis language. The automatic filter for slurs, targeted harassment and spam always lets it through, so a veteran can ask for help and be heard.

Vet Hub has a written procedure for moderators when a post suggests that someone may be in immediate danger.

The assistant can be switched off by the Vet Hub team, can be busy, and has daily limits. When it cannot answer, the app says so in your language and shows the Veterans Crisis Line first, with links that need no AI: the V-Source benefits list, VA.gov benefits and our contact page.

The same holds if your connection drops. The Veterans Crisis Line strip and this page do not depend on the assistant or on our database.

Vet Hub does not watch for crises in real time, and no one at Vet Hub is alerted when the phrase check or the assistant shows the Veterans Crisis Line. Staff cannot reach you, and Vet Hub does not know where you are: the app does not collect your device's location.

Vet Hub does not call emergency services for you.

The assistant does not diagnose, assess risk, or give medical, legal or financial advice. It gives general information, and it cannot decide whether you are eligible for a benefit.

The contact form is not a way to get help right now. It is not monitored around the clock.

When the assistant shows the Veterans Crisis Line card, your conversation records that it did, with a short note the assistant writes about why. Your conversations stay in your account until you delete a chat or delete your account. The phrase check on your device shows the card but records and sends nothing by itself; the message you typed is still sent to the assistant as usual.

For a question, or a problem with this page, use the contact page. A person reads what arrives there. On any assistant answer you can choose Report this response, and a person on the Vet Hub team can review it.

For immediate human help, use the Veterans Crisis Line: Dial 988 then Press 1, chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat, or text 838255.

Automated checks run on every change and once a day: the phrase check, the exact wording of the Veterans Crisis Line in English and Spanish across the product, and a browser test that the strip and its links stay on screen even when our servers do not answer.

The team also keeps a written test set for how the assistant handles a crisis. It is run by hand against the assistant; it is not one of the automatic checks.