Ignoring Vietnam Veterans Still

Vietnam Veterans are the majority of everything
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 30, 2014

Vietnam Veterans are the majority of everything but news reports. They are the majority of living veterans, VA claims, VA Backlog, homeless veterans and veteran suicides. They are the minority of the news reports and it is time to remember them or we will repeat the same outcomes.

This morning I was reading a fairly obscure site with the claim there are 22 military suicides a day. The report on the 22 a day did not come from active duty forces but came from a limited study on veterans.

It appears there is a lot of confusion regarding the research on veteran suicides. Time and time again when a reporter or radio host speaks about suicides, they do not know the basic information on this study.

Key points to know: the study came from 21 states, most of the suicides and attempted suicides involved Vietnam veteran age group.

Reporters are not interested in "senior" veterans.

As of 2010 the Department of Veterans Affairs reported that there were 23,234,000 veterans in this country up to the Gulf War (1991) 7,391,000 of living veterans were from the Vietnam Era 1964-1975

WWII Veterans (1941-1945) 1,711,000 out of 16,112,566
Korean War Veterans (1950-1953) 2,275,000 out of 5,720,000
Vietnam War Veterans (1964-1975)  7,391,000 out of 8,744,000
Gulf War Veterans (1990-1991) 2,244,583 out of 2,322,000.

Vietnam veterans and dependents are the majority of those receiving VA benefits. 1,390,078 with 4,157 children and 208,789 spouses.

VA Claims as of March 22, 2014

Vietnam Veterans 36% of 630,110 Pending Claims
Vietnam Veterans 36% of 351,120 Backlog Claims

OEF AND OIF VETERANS as of 2013

Updated Roster of OEF/OIF/OND Veterans through November 30, 2013
1,759,433 OEF/OIF/OND Veterans have become eligible for VA health care since FY 2002
1,035,718 Former Active Duty
723,715 Reserve and National Guard

Approximately 58 percent (1,027,801) of all separated OEF/OIF/OND Veterans have used VA health care since October 1, 2001. Between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013, a total of 621,967 of these Veterans accessed VA health care. The frequency and percent of the three most common diagnoses were: musculoskeletal ailments (612,112 or 59.6 percent); mental disorders (572,569 or 55.7 percent); and symptoms, signs, and ill-defined conditions (conditions that do not have an immediately obvious cause or isolated laboratory test abnormalities) (567,399 or 55.2 percent). A Veteran can have more than one diagnosis.

OEF OIF VA Claims

23% of Pending Claims
24% of Backlog Claims

MILITARY SUICIDES and VETERAN SUICIDES

Some people confuse "military" and "veteran" suicide numbers.

*Military suicides are reported by branch and were still in the military.

*Veteran suicides are reported among military veterans, no longer in the military but returned to civilian life.

VA SUICIDE DATA REPORT 2012
Janet Kemp, RN PhD
Robert Bossarte, PhD
2007

Department of Veterans Affairs began an intensive effort to reduce suicide among Veterans. This effort had its roots in the Mental Health staffing expansion and the Joshua Omvig Bill, and it included both attention to Veterans in crisis as well as those determined to be at high risk for suicide.

2008

VA’s Mental Health Services established a suicide surveillance and clinical support system based on reports of suicide and suicide events (i.e. non-fatal attempts, serious suicide ideation, suicide plan) submitted by Suicide Prevention Coordinators located at each VA Medical Center and large outpatient facility.

2010

VA also began an intensive effort to shorten delays associated with access to NDI data and increase understanding of suicide among all Veterans by developing data sharing agreements with all 50 U.S. states.

The primary source for Veteran suicide information has been limited to those Veterans who receive care in VA. Information on the rate and characteristics of suicide among those who used VHA services is available for the fiscal years 2001—2009 based on information from analyses of mortality data obtained through the National Death Index.

Secretary Shinseki engaged Governors of all U.S. states requesting support and collaboration to improve the timeliness and utility of suicide mortality reporting.

The cumulative cost of the State Mortality Data Project has been $46,771.29 as of 11/16/2012; including FY12 expenditures of $35,094.23 and FY13 expenditures of $11,677.06. All costs associated with the State Mortality Data Project are related to state fees for processing and delivery of mortality data.

November 2012
Data have been received from 34 states and data use agreements have been approved by an additional eight states. Data will be received from these states once the terms of individual data use and financial arrangements are finalized. An additional 11 states and territories have not made a decision regarding our request or are in the process of developing Data Use Agreements for VA review.

To date, data from twenty-one (21) states have been cleaned and entered into a single integrated file containing information on more than 147,000 suicides and 27,062 reported Veterans.

The ability of death certificates to fully capture female Veterans was particularly low; only 67% of true female Veterans were identified. Younger or unmarried Veterans and those with lower levels of education were also more likely to be missed on the death certificate.

Veteran status was unknown or not reported for more than 23% (n=34,027) of all suicides during the project period.

Between 1999 and 2010 the average age of male Veterans who died from suicide was 59.6 years among Veterans identified on state death certificates and 54.5 years among those who could be validated using VA administrative records.

Main Finding: More than 69% of Veteran suicides are among those age 50 years and older.

As some VHA utilizing Veterans experience multiple reported events, this corresponds to nearly 15,000 suicide suicide events reported in FY2012 compared to more than 16,000 in FY2011.

(80%) of non-fatal events occur within four weeks of recieving VHA services

Nearly 50% of the individuals with a VHA service visit in the year preeceeding the suicide event were last seen in the outpatient primary care setting

Main Finding: A majority of non-fatal events were the result or overdose or other intentional poisoning.

When you read about suicides understand that while the reporters do not mention Vietnam veterans, they are in fact the majority of them along with everything else. If your heartbreaks reading about young soldiers suffering understand that Vietnam veterans were also young when they were sent to war and began dying in Vietnam long before the acknowledged start of the war. The first causality on the Vietnam Memorial Wall is

Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass. is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who has a casualty date of Sept. 7, 1965.

Vietnam is still the longest war but beyond the years of troops dying in Vietnam, they are still paying the price and still ignored.