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Veterans Committing Suicide

by: tessa

Wed Oct 24, 2007 at 23:48:35 PM EDT

Shock and Awfulness

The AP reports on Veterans who commit suicide.
The stats are shocking.
The report quotes Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee:

"As many Vietnam veterans have now committed suicide as died in the original war. That's over 58,000."

This is almost to terrible to contemplate. And then you need to think about the people coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan:

Veterans Health Administration mental health officials estimate 1,000 suicides per year among veterans receiving care within VHA and as many as 5,000 per year among all living veterans.

This is important enough that I have posted the entire AP story below the fold. (Edited to protect AP's copyright - Jon K.) I have no knowledge of the accuracy of the report.

tessa :: Veterans Committing Suicide

From the Associate Press

House Backs Plan to Reduce Vet Suicides
By JIM ABRAMS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress took steps Tuesday to reduce the high rate of suicides among former members of the armed forces, but only after a gun rights senator succeeded in removing a plan to track veterans treated for mental illnesses.
The suicide prevention bill, which was passed 417-0 and sent to President Bush for his signature, comes amid growing concerns over mental health issues borne by veterans who have seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Unfortunately, suicide prevention has become a major part of our responsibility to both active duty and to our veterans," said Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. "It's a terrible statistic," he said: "As many Vietnam veterans have now committed suicide as died in the original war. That's over 58,000...."
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, would require mental health training for VA staff, screen suicide risk factors for veterans who receive VA care, refer at-risk veterans for counseling and treatment and designate a suicide prevention counselor at each VA medical facility. It also supports outreach and education for veterans and their families, peer support counseling and research into suicide prevention...
The House passed a similar bill last March on a unanimous vote, but it was held up in the Senate by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla...
Coburn was concerned that a provision requiring the VA to track the veterans it cares for could result in veterans treated for mental health issues being denied the right to purchase guns...

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Veterans Committing Suicide | 2 comments

The true statistic behind the hype (0.00 / 0)

If you want to know if war is hell and whether our troops are adequately supported in exchange for their service to country, this is an important statistic that requires thoughtful consideration.

Are we sending to war our most desperate young people? Is the truth about the profanity of war being told in suicide statistics in a way it is not told on the news? It's hard to spin suicide statistics; best to ignore them. This is a statistic all 18 year olds should consider in understanding the life path serving in a war may bring them.

That sending someone to war is changing their lives forever cannot be explained simply by whether they came home technically alive. It is possible to be shattered to pieces inside with limbs intact outside. The statistics point us in that direction. One wants to know how many shattered people were enlisted for this war (and perhaps Vietnam) to beef up enrollment stats for recruiters. One wants to know how many promising lives were shattered on the inside with the sights, sounds, and experiences of war that is sanitized in the media from the understanding of the people and country to whom/which that veteran comes home.

So Coburn thought it was highly important to make it possible for veterans who have sought mental illness assitance to buy guns, so much so that he would bring down legislation focused in part on mental illness of soliders? What may distressed and mentally disturbed people do with the guns Coburn wants them to have (suicide, homicide)? If I have understood this correctly, this is truly perverse.

A country that loves its citizens does not ask them to go to war for trumped up reasons. The killing of innocent people does not truly occur without hardening of hearts and/or devastating a human being. Citizens and their families pay for cavalier governmental decisions for many lifetimes.

by: greenpeas @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 14:44:17 PM UTC

Frightening Statistics (0.00 / 0)

This is yet another example that our VA system is broken. With all of Bushco's rhetoric about honoring our war heroes, your would think improving the way they are treated when they get back home would be a priority. As a professional armchair psychologist, I would guess that the personality types attracted to military service are unlikely to discuss their feelings or seek out the services of a mental health professional. Despite tremendous advances in mental health treatment over the past decade or so, there is still a stigma associated with it.

Out of curiosity - the stats are based on Iraq and Vietnam; unwinable wars of choice that were mismanaged by our government. I wonder how this compares to suicide rates of WWII veterans; a war of necessity that we won. Certainly the soldiers in WWII witnessed great attrocities and we had much less understanding of PTSD and mental health treatment in general.

by: Neal Fink @ Thu Oct 25, 2007 at 15:18:41 PM UTC