What does "one too many" suicide slogan mean?

What does "one too many" suicide slogan mean?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 28, 2014

The VA's War: Department Of Veterans Affairs And Congress Clash Over Suicide Charges is a headline that deserves many questions.

If you have been paying attention to suicides tied to military service, you must be tired of hearing, “even one suicide is one too many." It doesn't matter if the person saying those words represents the Department of Defense, the VA or service groups. No one ever explains what they mean by "too many."

Too many for what? To cause the Department of Defense to change what they did? For them to be honest with what the records prove? To explain why they stopped releasing the data necessary for researchers to study the demographics of troops committing suicide as well as attempting suicide? The last Suicide Event Report was released in 2012 regarding the number of military suicides for 2011.

The AFMES indicates that 301 Service Members died by suicide in 2011

(Air Force = 50, Army = 167, Marine Corps = 32, Navy = 52).

This number includes deaths strongly suspected to be suicides that are pending final determination.

DoDSER Points of Contact (POCs) submitted reports for 100% of AFMES confirmed 2011 suicides

(Air Force = 46, Army = 159, Marine Corps = 31, Navy = 51)

as of the data extraction date (26 April 2012).

A total of 915 Service Members attempted suicide in 2011

(Air Force = 241, Army = 432, Marine Corps = 156, Navy = 86)

DoDSERs were submitted for 935 suicide attempts

(Air Force = 251, Army = 440, Marine Corps = 157, Navy = 87)

Of the 915 Service Members who attempted suicide, 896 had one attempt, 18 had two attempts, and 1 had three attempts.

This report went on to say "Nearly one-half of suicide decedents had a history of OEF, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), or OND deployment (n = 134, 46.69%), and twenty-three of these (8.01%) had a history of multiple deployments. Suicide attempt DoDSERs reported more previous deployments than did suicide DoDSERs (n = 377, 40.32%). Direct combat experience was reported for 44 suicide decedents (15.33%) and 158 suicide attempts (16.90%)."

The STARRS study finding agrees with this assessment. "Soldiers who have deployed at least once do have an elevated suicide rate compared with Soldiers who never deployed," Schoenbaum said.

Yet since then the DOD has been saying that "most had not been deployed."

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that military members’ risk of suicide was associated with the same factors as those in the civilian population: being male, and suffering from depression and alcohol or drug abuse.

The study by Cynthia A. LeardMann, M.P.H., of the Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, and colleagues, comes eight years after the military suicide rate began climbing as the military fought two wars.

The findings of the study — thought to be the first that in addition to tracking active-duty troops, followed servicemembers after they resumed civilian life — counter the conventional wisdom that combat stress, number of deployments and the operations tempo as the U.S. fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had caused more troops to take their own lives.

“In this sample of current and former military personnel … suicide risk was independently associated with male sex and mental disorders but not with military-specific variables,” the study, “Risk Factors Associated with Suicide in Current and Former U.S. Military Personnel,” said.

The press ignored the STARRS report and simply repeated the report the DOD wanted them to focus on.

The other factor to all of this comes from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

New suicide data released by the department on Thursday showed that the rate of veterans suicide remained largely unchanged over that three-year period, the latest for which statistics are available. About 22 veterans a day take their own life, according to department estimates.

But while older veterans saw a slight decrease in suicides, male veterans under 30 saw a 44 percent increase in the rate of suicides. That’s roughly two young veterans a day who take their own life, most just a few years after leaving the service.

“Their rates are astronomically high and climbing,” said Jan Kemp, VA’s National Mental Health Director for Suicide Prevention. “That’s concerning to us.”

Yet the VA did not explain why there were so many after this report was released.

VA efforts since 2007 have shown some results. The Veterans Crisis Line — a national phone line — has experienced a steady increase in the number of calls, texts and chat session visits from former soldiers struggling with suicidal thoughts. In 2007, its first year, 9,379 calls went to the crisis line. Each year the call volume has increased, reaching a high of 193,507 calls in 2012, totaling about 840,000 overall, according to the VA.

If they do not have to explain anything, nothing will change. So what do you think "one too many" really means to them?