Porfirio recognized for veterans’ suicide prevention efforts

State Senator Mike Porfirio has been recognized by the National Veterans Mental Health Leadership Coalition as its 2025 National Innovator of the Year for his legislative work toward widening access to safe, effective psychoactive-assisted suicide prevention therapies, mental health support and veteran healthcare system improvements.

“Senator Porfirio has demonstrated the kind of decisive leadership this moment demands,” said Lt. General Martin R. Steele USMC (Ret.). “By investing in breakthrough therapies and building clinical capacity in Illinois, he is helping ensure that veterans receive the most advanced, evidence-based care available.”

Porfirio’s steadfast leadership is saving lives and is an example for the rest of the country, he said.

A captain in the Naval Reserve with over seven years of active duty service in Afghanistan and another 14 dedicated to reserve duty, Porfirio (D-11th) serves as chairman of the Senate’s Veterans Affairs Committee and was appointed 2025 chair of the Breakthrough Therapies for Veteran Suicide Prevention Advisory Council. 

“In the committee we review, promote and advance legislation supporting our veterans, making sure Illinois has pro-veteran policies,” Porfirio said.

“As chair of the Breakthrough Therapies for Veteran Suicide Prevention Advisory Council, this is where we are really pushing, fighting and working towards making Illinois a national leader in innovative breakthrough, cutting edge therapies for the prevention of veteran suicides,” he said.

Rather than risk punishment for seeking treatments like psilocybin or MDMA from other countries, the life-saving treatments should be available in the United States, Porfirio said.

The committee makes sure veterans have access to opportunities in education, the workforce, veteran small businesses and help for military families, Porfirio said.

“We have their backs,” he said. “Veterans deserve the best care; making sure Illinois is a national leader is what this is all about.”

The most significant step forward is $6 million secured in the state budget to advance research into new therapies, clinical trials, clinician training and an overall built-to-scale system for veterans needing treatment statewide, Porfirio said.

“We’re building an infrastructure and program that I think has the potential to be best-in-class in the nation, to become other states’ national model and for the federal government as well,” he said.

Strategic partnerships with existing VA hospitals, clinics and area university research programs are potential options being looked at, Porfirio said.

A Stanford Medicine news center story reported that a July 2025 study in Nature Mental Health found that plant-based psycho-active compound ibogaine combined with magnesium for cardiac protection effectively treated and improved traumatic brain injuries and reduced depression, anxiety and PTSD in special ops military veterans.

America Cares Too founder, CEO and 1st  Lt. (U.S. Army) Homer Bizzle provides advocacy for veteran and family self-sufficiency. The not-for-profit organization is headquartered in River Forest, Illinois.

Bizzle commended Porfirio on his efforts to find a cure noting that while he agrees more research and testing on psychoactive medicines for suicide prevention is necessary, he also believes veteran input on the issue is critical.

“I highly recommend we do a veterans’ town hall on these kinds of drugs,” he said. “Right now, the federal government is getting ready to cut veteran medication benefits. We have to make sure we are not setting veterans back into homelessness and poverty because of a lack of resources.”

America Cares Too employees Yourell Ratliff (U.S. Marine Corps) and Army Sgt. 1st Class (retired) Ronald Villagomez traveled with Sgt. Kenneth Lee (Army) to Springfield and lobbied Porfirio to advocate for funding to address employment, training and workforce development for veterans, Bizzle said.

The not-for-profit organization serves to bridge the communication gap between veterans and their needs, he said.

“The senator was receptive and is always advocating for veterans’ needs,” said community outreach coordinator Ratliff. “As a newer generation veteran, you can tell the answers are there; the communication is better. The longer you’re in the correct veteran communities, the easier it is to get linked to the answers you require.”

Process intake coordinator Villagomez said funding received for America Cares Too kept their operation funding programs to support employment and healthcare for veterans going.

“Now these veterans are coming back from different countries suffering and needing help,” Villagomez said. “I don’t want them ignored like we were after Vietnam.”

To streamline veterans with mental disabilities into employment, Bizzle calls the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act  the veterans’ first line of defense combined with the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as a legal mechanism for supporting their rights to healthcare.

“It’s been challenging but also rewarding,” he said. “Veterans didn’t know they could apply for benefits for reasonable accommodations with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.”

Abolishing the stigma around veterans’ mental health fitness to work can also be accomplished by training employers to stabilize veteran employees by providing the correct accommodations they need to be successful, Bizzle said.

“It starts with awareness,” he said.

On the Southwest Side, Vietnam veteran and Rhine VFW Post 2729 Commander Charlie Johnson, said Bizzle helped him secure full benefits long after his service.

Johnson, who “was 17 miles from the DMZ, pulled bunker guard and incoming duty (mortars)” also volunteered to prepare veterans who were killed-in-action to be sent stateside among other duties.

The effectiveness of medications prescribed by his psychiatrist at Hines VA Hospital in Maywood to treat years of recurring memories and other ailments can be spotty at times, he said.

Porfirio is hoping research and clinical trials on the new breakthrough therapies will begin this year, he said.

“Veteran suicide is a national emergency so we’re working to do this as soon as possible including annual growth and expansion afterward,” Porfirio said. “Securing funding to advance this enterprise will be ongoing.”

Plans to promote and build ways to access future trials and/or treatment are being considered by the committee, he said.

While starting with veterans, successful trials and widening networks could ostensibly come to include first responders and others who have experienced trauma, Porfirio said.

“Right now, it’s about veteran suicide prevention but this is good for society as a whole,” he said. “The potential is unlimited.”

Veterans needing assistance can contact America Cares Too at 877-704-3533.