General Says (suicide) Risk Screening Won't Work

[unhappycamper]

General Says Risk Screening Won't Work
July 31, 2010
United Press International

The U.S. Army cannot reduce its suicide rate by screening out recruits who might become suicide risks, Gen. Peter Chiarelli said Friday.

Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, held a news conference at the Pentagon to discuss a new report on military suicide. He commissioned the report after the suicide rate among soldiers exceeded that among civilians for the first time since the Vietnam era.

The National Institute of Mental Health said screening intensively enough to prevent two suicides a year would mean the Army would not meet its recruiting goals, he said. It would also screen out many people who might make fine Soldiers.

"You would be denying a whole bunch of folks the opportunity to serve their country in the Army, and you would have very little effect on your suicide rate," Chiarelli said.

While the increased suicide rate has been blamed on repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chiarelli said soldiers are most likely to take their own lives in their first year in the Army or in the early months of their first overseas deployment. Those who enlist when they are older, often after losing civilian jobs, are three times as likely to kill themselves.

[SharonAnn]

1. So, it's being in the army that leads one to suicide. That's the problem!

It's not faulty recruits. It's a faulty army environment.

[pinboy3niner]

2. It's traumatic experience--and the Army offers a lot of it these days. nt

[w8liftinglady]

3. I have seen normal kids become mind f&cked.

after a few deployments where they see women and kids killed,as well as their buddies....only to hear ambiguous reasons as to why we remain there....then they get to fight the VA for everything.

[pinboy3niner]

4. For me, it took only one deployment (9 1/2 months)

We called them 'tours' in those days. I was Infantry, WIA, did 18 months in the hospital, retired for partial disability. In the hospital, all I wanted to do was get 'fixed up' quick and get back to my unit. I felt guilty for not being with them.

I buried VN for 16 years, couldn't talk about it--not even with my little brother, who had been there with me. I went on with my life, thinking I was unaffected by it all--until, after 16 years, it all came back and I discovered how profoundly I'd been affected.

It's hard to explain PTSD to someone who hasn't experienced it. Among vets, there's often an unspoken recognition. But it's not just vets--I've experienced the same recognition talking to survivors of rape and other traumatic experience.

We do need to jack up the VA when they fall short, but we also need to recognize all the good things the VA is doing. Conservatives are dying to privatize it, which would be a disaster for vets and for taxpayers. For us, it's like walking a tightrope...

[w8liftinglady]

5. I agree..the VA needs to remain the VA...not Wal-V.A.

I am waiting for the day when all vets can easily access it...it is still really tough in rural Texas.