"Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans"

[vietnam_war_vet]

Source: CBS News

Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans

NEW YORK, Nov. 13, 2007

(CBS) They are the casualties of wars you don’t often hear about - soldiers who die of self-inflicted wounds. Little is known about the true scope of suicides among those who have served in the military.

But a five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling rate of suicide, what some call a hidden epidemic, Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian reports exclusively.

***********

CBS News’ investigative unit wanted the numbers, so it submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense asking for the numbers of suicides among all service members for the past 12 years.

Four months later, they sent CBS News a document, showing that between 1995 and 2007, there were almost 2,200 suicides. That’s 188 last year alone. But these numbers included only “active duty” soldiers.

***********

So CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information.

And what it revealed was stunning.

In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.



Read more: www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml

---

((As it was during and after the Vietnam War, there's a hidden, basically unpublicized epidemic of suicides among our nation's Iraqi and Afghani War veterans, both while they're still on active duty and after their military service discharge. This article made me furious, especially the comments by the VA's mental health head, Dr. Ira Katz, from further down in this article:


"There is no epidemic in suicide in the VA, but suicide is a major problem," he said.

Why hasn't the VA done a national study seeking national data on how many veterans have committed suicide in this country?

"That research is ongoing,”


Yep, SSDD. This is just another example of the blatant hypocrisy of our elected and appointed politicians -- from BOTH of our major political parties -- who continue to recite the "support our troops" mantra while maintaining our government's woefully inadequate support for our veterans. -- Michael))

[nebula]

1. Those numbers

...are almost beyond belief.

[Clanfear]

2. You can look at this link from the CRS report

It gives the numbers of active military deaths from all causes since 1980-2006. Page 11

The suicide rates are actually less than they used to be. Another interesting aspect is we were losing more soldiers (total) during the early '80's than we are now, even at war.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

[cutlassmama]

11. Sigh

suicides by young males outnumber those of females by six to one. These same males also outnumber female veterans by 13 to 1. Now, do the math again, and you actually find that suicides by veterans are lower than the general population.

[pattmarty]

3. This shit is just unacceptable.

[Clanfear]

4. 1990-2006

Active Duty Suicides

1990--232
1991--256
1992--238
1993--236
1994--232
1995--250
1996--188
1997--159
1998--161
1999--145
2000--151
2001--140
2002--160
2003--176
2004--188
2005--150
2006--155

[Clanfear]

5. It is also much lower than the population at large.

By almost a factor of ten.

[bluerum]

6. I would not trust this mis-administration if they said the sky was blue. In

a matter involving any type of quantitative analysis they are simply not credible.

[Clanfear]

7. This is the Congressional Research Service.

The Congressional Research Service is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis.

http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/whatscrs.html

[bluerum]

14. And the pentagon decides what to call an active duty suicide.

[olddad56]

12. I don't know about the validity of the numbers, but..

active duty suicides have never been the issue. After they come home, they fall through the cracks because of what they did, saw, and endured while in the war zone. It isn't easy to live with yourself after you come home, and it sinks in that your government lied to you and you have killed a bunch of people. Or you have seen horrific things that people should never have to see.

More soldiers died of suicide and drug/alcohol problems that dies in Vietnam.

[Clanfear]

8. The numbers outside active duty are devastating.

There are two major problems I have been able to identify. A lack of mental health follow up after combat, and a lack of job training for the real world.

[olddad56]

16. all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn't put Humpty back together again.

we have a lot of shattered people coming home from the governments illegal invasions.

[slipslidingaway]

9. Thanks and welcome to DU, here is the link to the video

forum post with other comments.

:hi:


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x69626

[Mnemosyne]

10. Do they count the kids that don't commit suicide outright? A young man recently

was in the process of drinking himself to death when he had a high-speed crash with his wife and two small children following in the car behind.

He was a close friend of my daughter and did 3 tours in Iraq, including Nov. 2004 in Fallujah.

It was a suicide, whether counted as one or not.

Heartbreaking.

[Sabriel]

13. I wondered about that, too

How about the guy last week who "accidentally" drove straight into a bridge support? No other traffic near him, no seat belt, no debris on the road.... Hmmmmm.

[Mnemosyne]

19. And we haven't seen the worst yet...

:cry:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

15. A young man I know was in Afghanistan.

His best friend who served there with him killed himself not too long after he returned home.

The young man I know blames himself for not being there to help him. He's having an extraordinarily difficult time dealing with this and his recent return to the states.

[TacticalPeek]

17. K&R

Fuck President AWOL.

:kick:

[murielm99]

18. I posted this the day the story came out.

No one responded to it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2278260&mesg_id=2278260