Suicide rate for young veterans three times higher than active duty

Suicides for young veterans three times higher! This after years of "resilience" training. Now do you believe me? They are in more danger after combat than during it. This danger is greater after they leave the service.

State Funded Program Mentors El Paso Veterans
KFOX News
By Crystal Price
January 29 2014

EL PASO, Texas -- The Department of Veterans Affairs recently released a report that shows suicides among young veterans just getting out of the military are three times higher than active-duty soldiers. The report shows that in 2011 the annual suicide rate for young veterans was 80 for every 100,000 of the population.

In 2009, 46 out of 100,000 committed suicide. Suicide rates among Army soldiers peaked in 2012 with 185. However, the overall suicide rate for active-duty soldiers stayed the same at 22 per 100,000 from 2009-2011.

Donna Nesbit, suicide prevention coordinator at the El Paso VA Health Care System, said one contributing factor to the rise in young suicides is due to a rising number of young veterans coming out of the military. "It's difficult to make that transition," Nesbit said. "It adds up to a great amount of difficulty. There are financial stresses, relationship issues and the experiences that they may have had during their active duty service." Nesbit said they have seen a decrease in suicide rates among all veterans engaged in mental care at the VA. Since 2007 they've been working to improve their suicide prevention program. "Part of the program is to pay closer attention, to track suicide data so that we can provide more effective treatments and provide programs that will impact the suicide rate," Nesbit said.
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