New Veteran Suicide Prevention Bill, $20 million for another failure

New Veteran Suicide Prevention Bill, $20 million for another failure
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
June 6, 2013

I keep a lot of their secrets. It comes with this job. I talk them off the ledge when everything else they tried failed. I listen to them when their families are pushing them away. I listen to the families when it is too late to save their lives and their ended their pain with a bullet or at the end of a rope.

There was a time when I could honestly tell them that the military and the VA were taking action to get all of them the help they needed. That ended in 2008 when I understood the "efforts" were actually doing more harm than good. I also lost hope when I, as an average person, figured it out when these highly educated people had no clue. They didn't understand the harm being done because they didn't understand the men and women they are trying to help.

If you doubt that, just read some of the Suicide news reports when they interview military brass and you'll hear how little they understand the men and women they have control over. They make ridiculous statements like "the majority of them have not been deployed" followed up by "civilian suicides have gone up too" but never seem to mention the fact that veterans are 7% of the population but over 20% of the suicides. As for "non-deployed" they never really explain what they mean by that. Considering training is a process when they are trained to use weapons while undergoing psychological games to break them down so they will follow orders topped off with the fact that most are teenagers thinking combat is like the computer game with unrealistic thoughts about what they are getting into.

They don't mention how when these young kids discover they made a mistake and joined without thinking about the commitment, they can't just walk away and the psychological screening missed signs they shouldn't have been able to enlist in the first place. They also seem unable to mention that when they use the term "active military" they are avoiding any numbers associated with National Guards and Reservists. Nice little word game they play.

What is even more infuriating is after all these years (going back to the 70's in case you didn't know) they still come out with "we don't know why" when asked about all of this. Just goes to show they don't have a clue but still come out with stuff that repeats what has already failed. There are over 900 suicide prevention programs.

This is one more part of the PR campaign to shut advocates up for a while.

Crisis of Veteran Suicide Prevention: Holt, Runyan Applaud Continued Funding
WEDNESDAY, 05 JUNE 2013
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, June 4, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2216, the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2014. The legislation includes $20 million in additional funding for veteran suicide prevention sought by U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ-12) and U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan (R-NJ-03).

Holt and Runyan previously worked together to secure $20 million in veteran suicide prevention funding in the 2012 and 2013 fiscal year Veterans Affairs budgets. Earlier this year, Holt and Runyan led a letter to the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations urging that the funding be continued in fiscal year 2014. Their letter, which was cosigned by 99 members of Congress, is attached.

“Over the past few years, Congress has finally started to take seriously the crisis of military suicide,” Holt said. “This continued funding sends a clear message to our soldiers and veterans: Your country is committed to helping you with the strains of your service, and we will do everything possible to keep you safe.”
read more here

They also plan on spending $40 million more on military suicide prevention. on military suicides.

This isn't anything new. When I wrote THE WARRIOR SAW, SUICIDES AFTER WAR, my heartbreak turned into pure anger.

Military and veteran suicides are higher even though billions are spent every year trying to prevent them. After years of research most can be connected to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD has been researched for 40 years yet most of what was known has been forgotten. Families are left blaming themselves for what they were never told.

Reporters have failed to research. Congress failed at holding people accountable. The military failed at giving them the help they need. We failed to pay attention.

This leaves us with a growing number of military men and women finding rest in a cemetery instead of finding help they need to stay here after their service.

Is anyone paying attention to all of this? Is there anyone demanding accountability instead of acceptability? When did it become ok to let the government do whatever it wanted and not have to account for anything? Congress keeps funding these Bills and we keep seeing the deadly results. What does Congress do? They fund more of the same programs that have already failed!

If reporters think this Bill will do anything real to save their lives, they haven't been paying attention to what has been going on. They have not taken a hard look at what been doing the most damage. It began with Battlemind and moved into "resilience training" even though honest research has shown these programs did more harm than good.

Families are left wondering if anyone really cares. Do they? Do they really care when everyday there is a headline in one part of the country about another grieving family?