Military suicide rate still high despite hard fight to stem deaths

Reporters have a choice to make. They can just keep repeating what they are told as if nothing has been done before or they can actually learn what has been causing these suicides. Then maybe, just maybe, we can save some lives instead of losing more every month.

My comment on this article should be read first, then get angry.
It would be a lot more helpful if reporters managed to tell the truth on the over 900 suicide prevention programs that do little good especially after the troops have been brainwashed into being "resilient" because they end up thinking PTSD is their fault. This program made all of this worse and then I have to undo the damage done when they call me from the ledge. What is even more heartbreaking is when I get a call from a Mom when it is too late and she is blaming herself for what no one ever told her. No one is held accountable and congress just keeps putting more and more money into what is causing most of this suffering.

One every 18 hours: Military suicide rate still high despite hard fight to stem deaths
By Bill Briggs
NBC News contributor
May 24, 2013

Amid a raft of Pentagon initiatives to slow its suicide crisis, a new Army report Thursday showed the pace of self-inflicted deaths among soldiers — and all service members — has barely budged so far this year from the record rate the military suffered during 2012.

Through April, the U.S. military has recorded 161 potential suicides in 2013 among active-duty troops, reservists and National Guard members — a pace of one suicide about every 18 hours. The Army, the largest contingent of the armed forces, sustained 109 reported suicides during the first four months, according its latest report.

Last year, when self-inflicted military deaths outstripped the number of troops killed in combat, there was one suicide every 17 hours among all active-duty, reserve and National Guard members, according to figures gathered from each branch.

"We are still continuing to fight this problem with the same intensiveness," said Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman. "We are still focused on preventing suicides from occurring in the Department of Defense. We are doing everything we can to ensure that service members are getting the proper health care they need to prevent this type of event from happening.
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