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A new study finds that rural veterans with mental health issues are more likely to receive online treatment after receiving smart devices from the Department of Veterans Affairs, reducing their risk of suicide during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The VA-sponsored study of 471,791 rural veterans with a mental health care background was published Wednesday in the Journal of the America Medical Association. It was found that 13,180 rural veterans who took a video-enabled tablet during COVID-19 were 36% less likely to make a suicidal emergency room visit and 22% less likely to engage in suicidal behavior.

The study found that veterans who took the tablet made an average of 1.8 more psychotherapy visits per year and 3.5 more telehealth psychotherapy visits per year than before.

“These findings suggest that the VA and other health systems should consider leveraging video-enabled tablets to improve access to mental health services through telehealth and prevent suicides among rural residents,” the study’s researchers wrote.

Of the 106,451 tablets with data plans in circulation as of September, the VA issued 93% of them during the pandemic, with a third of them sent to rural areas.

Only veterans who didn’t have a device with broadband or cellular internet service, couldn’t get to the VA easily, and could use a tablet were eligible to get one.

The report noted that U.S. suicide rates are at their highest since WWII, with veterans one and a half times more likely to commit suicide than non-veterans.

Rural areas are particularly at risk due to high unemployment in rural areas and a lack of health care resources, the VA said.

Kritee Gujral, a health economist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, led the study along with five other researchers.