Student vets grapple with feelings of suicide

Student vets grapple with feelings of suicide
In Health
By Sharon Wittke, special to the Beacon
09.18.12

Student veterans are more than twice as likely to think about suicide as other college students, but they are far less likely to seek professional counseling because of cultural stoicism.

Forty-six percent of student veterans have thought of suicide, compared with 18.7 percent of students overall, according to the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah.

More military veterans are sitting in college classrooms today than in previous years because of the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008. More than 400,000 veteran students applied for spring 2012 enrollment, according to the Student Veterans of America, a nonprofit coalition of student veterans organizations.

Veteran students are typically older and more experienced than traditional college students and have acquired skills and knowledge that help them in the classroom.

But many combat veterans have mental-health problems stemming from post-traumatic stress disorder that may strain the collegiate mental health-care system.
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