Five Missouri National Guard Troops Committed Suicide In Six Months

The fact this has happened in the first six months of this year should be an awakening for the military and communities around the nation that what they've been doing has not worked. All the reports of what they've been trying has been a series of repeated mistakes. It is not that they don't care but more a case of being ill advised. They keep asking the same people to come up with solutions when that stopped making sense a long time ago. To think the same group of people would have anything new to suggest would mean they were holding back before this. It's like trying to get blood out of a stone.

Here's a suggestion that has worked in a lot of parts of the country in the civilian world. Crisis teams fully trained to deal with trauma and the aftermath. Some communities have enlisted the experts from mental health, Chaplains to take care of the spiritual aspects and therapist offering help thru programs like yoga and martial arts to help them learn how to calm anxiety, relieve stress and reduce anger. All of them have to be trained in their professions and receive more training on trauma. Without the specialized training on trauma, there isn't much they can really do to help.

The other thing they have to do is to train the families. It's gotten past the point when simply understanding the problem is sufficient. They need to understand but above that, they need to know what to look for and how to respond to it.

This is not impossible. In 1982 I learned the hard way. I married into the world of a Vietnam veteran at a time when no one was talking about PTSD. I faced having to learn all of this on my own with virtually no support in doing so simply because my family didn't understand. I was constantly advised to get a divorce just because they didn't have any knowledge on the subject. They were limited to the term "crazy Nam vet" and that was the end of what they were willing to understand. They were not alone but I was.

Time went on and little by little they understood more and supported me more in the process. We can do it today. The simple fact you're reading this blog proves how far we've come since those lonely days of searching for information in clinical books. We have hundreds of thousands of reports online to find what we need to know, yet there are countless families with absolutely no idea what it is they need to find. Support groups are vital but there are simply not enough of them. Families are on the front lines but when it comes to information and understanding, they are unarmed. The citizen soldiers pay for this instead of receiving what they need to heal. It's simply not enough to just point the finger at the military and the VA.

They need what the VA has to offer but unless they reinstate support groups for families along with providing them with the tools to help the veteran heal, we will continue to see numbers of suicides, attempted suicides, homelessness and divorces rise.

Holding a marriage together is hard enough but when you add in combat and PTSD, it becomes nearly impossible to stay together. I know for a fact if I didn't know what I knew, I wouldn't have been able to get past the dark days into better days. We've been married almost 26 years! They do not have to die because they've lost hope of healing. They do not have to become so despondent the end seems to be the only solution. They do need the rest of us to find reasons to stay. We can get there but only if the military and the VA listens to what really needs to be done and these steps are not nearly as expensive as what they've been trying to do.

They've paid out millions of dollars for programs that are repeated mistakes wasting money and more troubling, wasting lives. Maybe this report of the five suicides in six months will wake them up. After all, we're talking about the numbers from the Missouri National Guard alone and that is a very troubling piece of news.

Five Missouri National Guard Troops Commit Suicide So Far This Year
Written by Jennifer Moore
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, sits on the US Armed Services Committee. She says already this year, five soldiers in the Missouri National Guard have taken their own lives—that’s a record high, she says.

On Tuesday, the Armed Services Committee talked about the shortfall of mental health professionals in the military. McCaskill says one solution is to hire licensed mental health counselors without supervision.

“The military is moving forward on that, and they are working to fill 225 vacancies across the military with very-much needed mental health professionals,” she says.

McCaskill also talked about protecting a soldier’s confidentiality if he or she comes forward seeking mental health treatment, and embedding a mental health counselor in each National Guard unit across the state.
go here for more
http://www.ksmu.org/content/view/6869/66/

Here's a video I made for the National Guard troops. Our citizen soldiers need more help and support and they are waiting.



And then we have this from Florida

Community Leaders Say Listening to Military, Soldiers' Stories is Key to Prevent Suicide

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Nearly as many American troops have committed suicide this year as have been killed in combat in Afghanistan, according to published reports.

The U.S. government's top psychiatric researcher said that's because of inadequate mental health care for soldiers.

Last month, a study was published that found about 20 percent of returning U.S. soldiers have post traumatic stress disorder.

The military said so far this year, roughly 60 soldiers have committed suicide, and about 50 other deaths are still under investigation but have not been confirmed as suicides.

Jacksonville doctor, Justin D'Arienzo said while military suicides are shocking, they are for the most part on track with civilian suicide rates.

Judy Edwards, the president and founder of the Florida Blue Stars Mom, Chapter 1, said her son, 24-year old Army Spt. Nicholas Edwards is on his third deployment to Iraq.

"He has never really exhibited (suicidal thoughts) but it has been in the back of my mind because you hear so much about it here at home," said Edwards.
read more here
Community Leaders Say Listening to Military