VA now studying black women to prevent veteran suicides?

When will they ever learn?
by
Chaplain Kathie
June 13, 2012
First, ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR MINDS? Did they think this would get them more kudos than add to the miserable disaster? Next, the findings of support and encouragement were already known when the Disabled American Veterans commissioned this study going back to 1978!

Yet now they waste more time studying something experts already knew.

Are black women key to easing military suicides?
By Stephanie Czekalinski
National Journal

Black women have the lowest rates of suicide in the country, and although it’s not completely understood why, Veterans Affairs officials hope to re-create elements of black female culture that may help stop military veterans from killing themselves.

Women - particularly black women - provide each other social support and encouragement categorized by the opportunity to speak honestly with their peers, said Jan Kemp, mental health director for suicide prevention at the VA.

“The sense of community among themselves, and the ... built-in support that they get from each other is something we’re paying a lot of attention to, and trying to find ways to emulate,” Kemp said. “I think often that veterans and men don’t have that same sort of personal support, and we have to build that for them,” she said.

In general, white men are more likely to commit suicide than people in other groups. The suicide rate among white men was 25.96 per 100,000 from 2005 to 2009, according to the Centerns for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, the rate for black women was less than three suicides per 100,000. Government data for suicide deaths among military personnel is not available by race.

Combine that with the stress that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put on troops, and the risk of suicide increases. “We’re working with the highest-risk group in the nation,” Kemp said.

Stories abound of vets dying at their own hands after slipping through the cracks in the care network or not seeking help because of the stigma surrounding mental health issues.
read more here

But this could be the the worst news coming out of this article.

The VA launched its suicide-prevention program in earnest in 2007, Kemp said. Since then, the crisis line has received more than 600,000 calls and 50,000 contacts via computer chat.

For all the money being spent in the DOD and the VA treating PTSD, including the pure BS of changing the title of what they have from PTSD to PTSI, topped off by the military's use of the failed "Resiliency Training" we have the outcome of increased military suicides, attempted suicides along with veterans committing suicide topped off with the much overlooked fact that if they are discharged by the military, they are not counted and if they are not in the VA system, they are not counted. Now consider another overlooked fact. No one is counting the deaths from suicide by vehicular causes or overdoses of medications because these can be also considered accidents.

As it is almost one a day active duty service member and 18 veterans a day committing suicide no one is holding anyone accountable for any of this. Congress keeps holding the same hearings, asking the same questions and government keeps pushing what has already been proven to be a failure. When will they ever learn?

When it comes to what they point to as success, like the suicide prevention hotline, it has been an accident waiting to happen that has resulted in so many in crisis they feel so hopeless suicide seems to be the only way out!