Why are there more veteran suicides in this war compared to previous wars?

[Donald Polish]

I really doubt that current situation is so good in the US armed forces...
It's often been reported that there are more suicides than combat deaths in this most recent war in the middle east. Some have mentioned that there is a stigma against admitting to mental health problems in the military, and that PTSD and depression often go untreated.
But I'm wondering why this is the case in this war in particular, more-so than other engagements?
Any links or sources??

 

[Daryl Hunt]

I believe that it's going to be the same. For instance, 25% of all Homeless are Veterans. But when you figure in that 24% of the entire adult population are Male Veterans and 2% are female Veterans then the figure of 25% is just about right for the veteran homeless as compared to non homeless. Only one side is ever given and it's to either make it look worse that it is or better than it really is.

 

[Teddy Pollins]

IMHO, there is poor funding for programs to help veterans when they come back to the states. War is hell. And a lot of them don't have the resources on their own to learn how to deal with the horrors they've seen. The government is leaving them alone...

 

[Moonglow]

The VA in Fayetteville, Arkansas added a new mental health wing last year..I haven't used it yet....I was gonna wait till I'm insane,...

 

[Daryl Hunt]

The VA in Fayetteville, Arkansas added a new mental health wing last year..I haven't used it yet....I was gonna wait till I'm insane,...

You are as sane as I am. Now, that should send you running and screaming to that new wing.

 

[Moonglow]

The VA in Fayetteville, Arkansas added a new mental health wing last year..I haven't used it yet....I was gonna wait till I'm insane,...

You are as sane as I am. Now, that should send you running and screaming to that new wing.

I refuse to take services away from fellow veterans that actually need it worse than myself....My wife moved out and the sanity abated...

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Guilt I'd say. Recent US wars weren't wars of defense but of conquest. Doesn't take long before you realize a lot of the things the enemy says about us ia ctually true and that's a hard thing to accept. When the nightmares a combat veteran then must endure, realizing you were the bad guy proves too much for those of good moral fiber otherwise.

 

[Daryl Hunt]

The VA in Fayetteville, Arkansas added a new mental health wing last year..I haven't used it yet....I was gonna wait till I'm insane,...

You are as sane as I am. Now, that should send you running and screaming to that new wing.

I refuse to take services away from fellow veterans that actually need it worse than myself....My wife moved out and the sanity abated...

It's a Joke, Son, a Joke. If you need it, then get it. If you don't, don't. I probably need it but I've been around so long that it's no longer worth it. You see, the AF never recognized PTSD a few years ago. We were taught to bury it deep inside ourselves. The problem is, when you bury those anger issues, you also bury other things like joy, love and more. I am on file with the VA as PTSD but really hate their way of dealing with it. I don't need to be a zombie.

 

[Publius1787]

I really doubt that current situation is so good in the US armed forces...
It's often been reported that there are more suicides than combat deaths in this most recent war in the middle east. Some have mentioned that there is a stigma against admitting to mental health problems in the military, and that PTSD and depression often go untreated.
But I'm wondering why this is the case in this war in particular, more-so than other engagements?
Any links or sources??

More veterans suicides than combat deaths? There are more troops killed in car/motorcycle accidents than combat deaths. Perhaps because the number of combat deaths are relatively so low?

 

[whitehall]

If you ask why are there more suicides than combat deaths the answer is simple. There are virtually no combat deaths and the suicide rate among Veterans is consistent with the suicide rate among all citizens.

 

[waltky]

Uptick in Military Suicides Last Summer; free medical marijuana for severely ill vets...

New Report Shows Uptick in Military Suicides Last Summer
Jan 04, 2016 | Suicides in the U.S. military showed an increase over the summer months last year for active and reserve components compared to the same period in 2014, in a possible departure from a slight downward trend, the Defense Department reported Monday.

For the third quarter of 2015, including the months of July, August and September, the number of suicides recorded for the active duty military was 72, compared to 57 in the third quarter of 2014. In the reserves, including the Air National Guard and Army National Guard, the number of suicides in the third quarter of 2015 was 70, compared to 48 in the same period a year earlier, according to the Defense Suicide Prevention Office.

At a briefing, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the office's Quarterly Suicide Report showed a "slight increase for all branches" in the number of suicides. "The Department of Defense continues to consider any suicides too many and we're doing everything we can to prevent suicide in our military," he said. "A number of different methods we have that the services are employing we believe are effective, but they do take time."

When life gets difficult, suicide can seem like the only way out.​

Suicides in the active-duty Marine Corps more than doubled in the third quarter of 2015 compared to 2014 to 13 from six, the report said. Figures on the third quarters of 2015 and 2014 showed suicides in the active duty Navy increased to 11 from seven; in the active duty Air Force to 16 from 13; and in the active duty Army to 32 from 31. Through all of 2014, the number of suicides recorded for the active duty military was 273, and for the reserves it was 170, for a total of 443. Through the first three quarters of 2015, the number of suicides for active duty was 202 and the number for the reserves was 161, for a total of 363.

In an interview last month with Military Times, Dr. Keita Franklin, director of DSPO, said that through Dec. 15 the number of suicides among active duty members appeared to have leveled off for the third straight year, possibly indicating that suicide prevention programs were having an effect. Through Dec. 15, the initial data showed that 275 active-duty members had taken their own lives in 2015 -- two more than in 2014, the Pentagon said. The numbers appeared to have "reached a plateau, where you see three years of data that is similar in nature, and are not largely spiking like we saw in 2008, 2009 and again in 2011," Franklin said.

New Report Shows Uptick in Military Suicides Last Summer | Military.com

See also:

Alaska Groups Give Free Cannabis to Severely Ill, Veterans
Jan 04, 2016 - While Alaska's commercial marijuana market slowly forges ahead, some residents aren't waiting for retail businesses to surface and are instead providing cannabis to the severely ill and veterans, all free of charge.

Alaska Green Angels is one of these groups that has been giving away free cannabis for the past year. It was started as reaction to what the group feels is a medical marijuana system that has failed its patients -- although the state disagrees.

On a Tuesday afternoon in December, a dozen of the group's members gathered at a storefront in Anchorage. A seemingly disparate group, they ranged in ages and appearance. One young woman wore a neatly tied ponytail; another man with tattoos on his neck huddled in a camo jacket; an older woman in jeans stood the entire meeting.

Marijuana is measured in 3.5-gram amounts and placed in cans for packaging at the Pioneer Production and Processing marijuana growing facility in Arlington, Wash.​

Their stories were similarly disparate. Some were military veterans battling PTSD. One woman had shattered her pelvis and broken her back. Another man had Crohn's disease and recently had a section of his intestine removed; another woman had a spinal infection.

The common thread between their stories was pain, and the treatment of their pain with cannabis. Three of the group's founders -- Don "DC" McKenzie, Adele Tara, and Darby Andrews -- were among the group at the Tuesday get-together. The fourth co-founder, Angel Kirstene, was unable to attend.

A simple premise

 

[waltky]

VA screwed up in suicide care of Marine...

IG Report: VA Botched Care of Marine Who Committed Suicide
Jan 11, 2016 | An internal investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs has found that the San Diego VA system botched its care of former Camp Pendleton Marine Jeremy Sears, who killed himself at an Oceanside gun range in October 2014.

After Sears' suicide at age 35, his family, friends and some veterans advocates have questioned how the VA handled his case. The combat veteran waited 16 months to hear that he would receive no disability pay after serving multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and being diagnosed with a brain injury. Critics said the VA's medical and benefits divisions let Sears fall through the cracks and more could have been done to save his life.

Another black mark for the VA

The investigation, by the VA's own inspector general, provides an official measure of confirmation. It's another black mark against the VA, a sprawling agency that has been under fire in recent years for a massive national claims backlog followed by whistleblowers exposing that administrators concealed long waits for medical care, mainly to pocket performance bonuses. Sears' story has attracted attention at the highest levels. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, along with VA Secretary Bob McDonald, requested a review after her office learned of the suicide from coverage in The San Diego Union-Tribune. Her office plans to highlight the report in a public statement. The investigation's conclusions show the VA is "still too often falling short in its mission," said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

The report reveals that San Diego VA doctors continued to prescribe a narcotic painkiller -- hydrocodone, commonly known as Vicodin -- for 22 months without any oversight, even though studies warn that chronic pain elevates risk of suicide attempts. And high suicide risk makes use of hydrocodone less appropriate. During Sears' use of hydrocodone for knee pain, he didn't get a suicide risk assessment. VA guidelines call for one to be completed when starting pain therapy and during regular installments afterward. Also, Sears told VA screeners about being near two roadside bombs when they detonated -- and once losing consciousness -- but physicians never gave him a follow-up plan for treatment of traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Research has drawn a link between TBI and suicide.

Sgt. Jeremy P. Sears, left, a range coach with Headquarters and Support Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, gives advice to a Marine during an unknown distance live-fire training exercise.​

A link between TBI and Suicide

"If the patient had regular follow-up with his [primary care physician], the provider may have identified signs and symptoms of [post-traumatic stress disorder] and depression, and the need for follow-up of TBI and post-traumatic headaches," the investigation said. Additionally, Sears emailed his VA doctor in the months before his death to say he wanted to "wean off" hydrocodone, an opium-based drug that can be habit-forming. According to the investigation, his physician never followed up with him -- even though patients on this medication are told not to stop on their own for fear of withdrawal symptoms. Overall, the VA inspector general's analysis said the San Diego VA erred in several ways during the nearly two years Sears was under its care. That office issued five recommendations in response to those mistakes, including two designed to have impact at the national level.

MORE

 

[longknife]

I wish the OP could come up with some figures for the claim. I think military suicides per capita have remained the same for many years.

 

[waltky]

Navy Launches Expanded Suicide Prevention Program Service-Wide...

Navy Expands Suicide Prevention Program Service-Wide
Feb 15, 2017 | The Navy has rolled out a program aimed at providing added support for sailors considered at risk for suicide.

The Navy has rolled out a program aimed at providing added support for sailors considered at risk for suicide. Sailor Assistance and Intercept for Life, or SAIL, was announced service-wide earlier this month and is now available at all Fleet and Family Support Center locations. The voluntary program works by linking sailors who have demonstrated suicidal behavior with Fleet and Family Support Center counselors trained in assessing suicide risk. Those counselors remain in contact with the participant for three months, said Capt. Michael Fisher, director of the Navy Suicide Prevention Branch. They can help identify stressors, like financial issues, and link the sailor with resources, he said.

Participation in SAIL is not intended to replace therapy. "A caring contact is all it is," Fisher said. SAIL is patterned after the Marine Corps' Marine Intercept Program, which began in 2014. A pilot of the Navy's version began in August in the Pacific Northwest. At least 91 sailors accepted SAIL's services out of 175 referrals between Aug. 28 and Feb. 3, according to Navy data. The problem of suicide among troops has plagued military leaders in recent years as numbers spiked. Navy Personnel Command data shows 51 active duty sailors and 10 reservists killed themselves in 2016, according to preliminary numbers. In 2015, the numbers were 43 active duty sailors and 14 reservists.

About 40 percent of sailors who commit suicide had a previous attempt or impulse, Fisher said. Removing stigmas that prevent sailors from seeking mental health treatment or from helping those who appear to be in danger has been an ongoing challenge. The Navy has promoted intervention programs to help sailors recognize and respond to suicidal or risky behavior among their peers. "We want people to be willing to step forward if they're having challenges," Fisher said. The Military Crisis Line offers confidential support for active duty and reserve service members and their families 24 hours a day at 800-273-8255 or online at www.militarycrisisline.net. Text messages can also be sent to 838255.

Navy Expands Suicide Prevention Program Service-Wide | Military.com

 

[waltky]

Calls to Vets' Suicide Hotline Still Sent to Backup Centers...

Report: Calls to Vets' Suicide Hotline Still Sent to Backup Centers
21 Mar 2017 | WASHINGTON — The Veterans Crisis Line continued to send approximately 30 percent of its calls to backup centers near the end of 2016.

The Veterans Crisis Line continued to send approximately 30 percent of its calls to backup centers near the end of 2016, according to an internal watchdog report released Monday that outlined widespread problems with the suicide hotline. The Department of Veterans Affairs established the Veterans Crisis Line as a suicide-prevention effort in 2007 and estimated 10 percent of its calls would be routed to a backup call center – where calls are sent if all phone lines are busy. But from April through November last year, the amount of calls sent to backup centers hovered at about 30 percent, even after a second call center was opened in Atlanta in October, according to a report from the VA inspector general's office. Calls sent to some backup centers, which are not run by the VA, are placed in a queue, leading to some veterans waiting for a response or hanging up and trying to call back. The VA doesn't track how long veterans wait in a queue, the report states.

The findings follow internal emails sent in September by the hotline's former director, Greg Hughes, that stated 35 to 40 percent of calls were rolling over to backup centers. The reports -– and earlier findings from the inspector general that 23 callers were sent to a voicemail system -- prompted a new law requiring the VA to submit improvement plans this year. "It's unacceptable that the issues with the Veterans Crisis Line have still not been addressed," Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said in a prepared statement. "I am extremely frustrated by the OIG's findings and will continue to conduct oversight."

The Veterans Crisis Line continued to send approximately 30 percent of its calls to backup centers near the end of 2016, according to an internal watchdog report that outlined widespread problems with the hotline​

Poonam Alaigh, the VA's acting under secretary for health, wrote in response to the report that the hotline "is the strongest it's ever been." She said the VA would follow up on the 16 recommendations that the inspector general made in the latest report. "VA is making notable advances to improve access and quality of service to mental health crisis care for veterans, which is why we've opened the new Atlanta satellite office," Alaigh wrote. The inspector general cited training issues, a lack of structured leadership and little follow-through on making improvements the inspector general recommended last year. "I am disappointed by the lack of action taken by the [VA] to consider the recommendations for improving the shortcomings of the Veterans Crisis Line that were previously identified… more than a year ago," Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

Additionally, some employees told the inspector general's office that the emphasis at the Veterans Crisis Line was on business metrics, rather than tracking whether veterans received the help they needed. John Daigh, an assistant inspector general, wrote in the report that the hotline didn't have the resources to answer all of the calls it received. From April through November last year, more than 384,000 veterans and family members called the hotline, and more than 108,000 -- 28 percent -- went to backup centers. The number of calls sent to backup centers during that time peaked in November, when nearly 18,000 – about 35 percent --- were rolled over. Daigh attributed the increase to the opening of the Atlanta call center. Poor planning led to the temporary transfer of hotline workers from the original facility in upstate New York to Atlanta to help with training. "This led to an increase in the number of calls that rolled over to backup centers and delays in the development and implementation of [hotline] processes, policies and procedures," Daigh wrote.

MORE

 

[yiostheoy]

I really doubt that current situation is so good in the US armed forces...
It's often been reported that there are more suicides than combat deaths in this most recent war in the middle east. Some have mentioned that there is a stigma against admitting to mental health problems in the military, and that PTSD and depression often go untreated.
But I'm wondering why this is the case in this war in particular, more-so than other engagements?
Any links or sources??

Which theatre of war are you talking about ??

Afghanistan?

Iraq?

Stateside?

 

[yiostheoy]

I believe that it's going to be the same. For instance, 25% of all Homeless are Veterans. But when you figure in that 24% of the entire adult population are Male Veterans and 2% are female Veterans then the figure of 25% is just about right for the veteran homeless as compared to non homeless. Only one side is ever given and it's to either make it look worse that it is or better than it really is.

You changed the subject to homelessness.

Non sequitur.

 

[yiostheoy]

The VA in Fayetteville, Arkansas added a new mental health wing last year..I haven't used it yet....I was gonna wait till I'm insane,...

What makes you think you need to wait Moonglow ??

 

[gallantwarrior]

I think it's a different breed altogether. Back then, men were expected to be MEN, suck it up and feed their families. Modern "men" are sensitive and understanding, expected to suck up an entirely different puddle of piss.

 

[yiostheoy]

VA screwed up in suicide care of Marine...

IG Report: VA Botched Care of Marine Who Committed Suicide
Jan 11, 2016 | An internal investigation by the Department of Veterans Affairs has found that the San Diego VA system botched its care of former Camp Pendleton Marine Jeremy Sears, who killed himself at an Oceanside gun range in October 2014.

After Sears' suicide at age 35, his family, friends and some veterans advocates have questioned how the VA handled his case. The combat veteran waited 16 months to hear that he would receive no disability pay after serving multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and being diagnosed with a brain injury. Critics said the VA's medical and benefits divisions let Sears fall through the cracks and more could have been done to save his life.

Another black mark for the VA

The investigation, by the VA's own inspector general, provides an official measure of confirmation. It's another black mark against the VA, a sprawling agency that has been under fire in recent years for a massive national claims backlog followed by whistleblowers exposing that administrators concealed long waits for medical care, mainly to pocket performance bonuses. Sears' story has attracted attention at the highest levels. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, along with VA Secretary Bob McDonald, requested a review after her office learned of the suicide from coverage in The San Diego Union-Tribune. Her office plans to highlight the report in a public statement. The investigation's conclusions show the VA is "still too often falling short in its mission," said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

The report reveals that San Diego VA doctors continued to prescribe a narcotic painkiller -- hydrocodone, commonly known as Vicodin -- for 22 months without any oversight, even though studies warn that chronic pain elevates risk of suicide attempts. And high suicide risk makes use of hydrocodone less appropriate. During Sears' use of hydrocodone for knee pain, he didn't get a suicide risk assessment. VA guidelines call for one to be completed when starting pain therapy and during regular installments afterward. Also, Sears told VA screeners about being near two roadside bombs when they detonated -- and once losing consciousness -- but physicians never gave him a follow-up plan for treatment of traumatic brain injury, or TBI. Research has drawn a link between TBI and suicide.

Sgt. Jeremy P. Sears, left, a range coach with Headquarters and Support Battalion, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, gives advice to a Marine during an unknown distance live-fire training exercise.​

A link between TBI and Suicide

"If the patient had regular follow-up with his [primary care physician], the provider may have identified signs and symptoms of [post-traumatic stress disorder] and depression, and the need for follow-up of TBI and post-traumatic headaches," the investigation said. Additionally, Sears emailed his VA doctor in the months before his death to say he wanted to "wean off" hydrocodone, an opium-based drug that can be habit-forming. According to the investigation, his physician never followed up with him -- even though patients on this medication are told not to stop on their own for fear of withdrawal symptoms. Overall, the VA inspector general's analysis said the San Diego VA erred in several ways during the nearly two years Sears was under its care. That office issued five recommendations in response to those mistakes, including two designed to have impact at the national level.

MORE

Marines do not have permission for suicide or to die in combat.