Military Suicide Awareness or Healing Awareness?

Time to Raise Awareness of How to Heal Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 23, 2014

Too many veterans knew they needed help to heal but never found it. It is time to let them know there are many more veterans fighting their way out of the darkness. Suicide awareness needs to be replaced with healing awareness.

For years great efforts have been made, huge sums of money have been spent, collected and wasted on preventing suicides tied to the military. Wasted? Sure because the number of suicides went up after 2009 when it seemed as if everyone was paying attention but no one seemed to care it wasn't working. When do we stop being aware they survived combat but not being back home?  When do we start to face the fact that what has been done, has failed them?

Suicide Prevention Month Army

What is it?
The Army will demonstrate our ongoing commitment to enhancing Health Promotion / Risk Reduction / Suicide Prevention (HP/RR/SP) programs for Soldiers, Department of the Army (DA) civilians, and families by observing Army Suicide Prevention Month, Sept. 1 - 30, 2010, in conjunction with National Suicide Prevention Week, Sept. 5 - 11, 2010. Suicide Prevention Month is an Army-wide opportunity to raise awareness, understanding, and use of Army HP/RR/SP programs among our key internal and external audiences.

What has the Army done?
Over 160 Active-duty Soldiers committed suicide during 2009, continuing a five-year trend of increasing suicides in the Army. In response, the Army instituted a multi-level, holistic approach to HP/RR/SP that recognizes the many challenges our Soldiers, families and Army civilians face.

Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff, U.S. Army, has said that "Soldiers today live a lifetime in their first 6 years of service; [they] experience more during their first enlistment than most of their civilian peers will in a lifetime."

Army programs aim to assist Soldiers, families and Army civilians with their "lifetime" of challenges, including substance abuse, financial and relationship problems, post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury.

In spring 2009 the Army established the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force (ASPTF), an organization focused on promoting Soldier, civilian and family wellness. The Army also launched the Army Campaign Plan for Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention (ACPHP) in an effort to better synchronize efforts between multiple programs focused on care and support services.

The VA undertook trying to figure out what the number of suicides were. They were looking backwards to January of 1999 up to December of 2004. Data was collected and entered from just 21 states. Veteran Suicide Research

Project Cost
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.

At the time few paid attention to this part of the report.

Limitations of Existing Data
Currently available data include information on suicide mortality among the population of residents in 21 states. Veteran status in each of these areas is determined by a single question asking about history of U.S. military service. Information about history of military service is routinely obtained from family members and collected by funeral home staff and has not been validated using information from the DoD or VA. Further, Veteran status was not collected by each state during each year of the project period. Appendix B provides a listing of the availability of Veteran identifiers by state and year.

Further, this report contains information from the first 21 states to contribute data for this project and does not include some states, such as California and Texas, with larger Veteran populations. Information from these states has been received and will be included in future reports.

They didn't pay much attention to this part either.

In 2012, non-fatal suicide events were reported for almost 11,000 VHA users. 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.

This pretty much slipped their minds too, "the majority (80%) of non-fatal events occur within four weeks of receiving VHA services. An additional 10% of events occur in the second month following last VHA service visit."

They paid attention to this part.

If this prevalence estimate is assumed to be constant across all U.S. states, an estimated 22 Veterans will have died from suicide each day in the calendar year 2010.

That was four years ago but while awareness has increased to the point where it seems more like one of the GEICO commercials with someone saying "everyone knows that" there doesn't seem to be very much awareness of the biggest part of all of this. Most veterans live with PTSD!

Is PTSD responsible for all veteran suicides? No, but most of them are because of what PTSD does up to and including what it does to relationships.

The other huge issue not being talked about is more veterans do more than just heal. They thrive.

That's what is missing in all the reports and research projects. We've talked about the reality far too many veterans face on a daily basis because, as you were just reminded, the numbers are not just about successful suicides but attempted ones as well. What we don't see in all the reports is more veterans decide this day matters. This day they still have something to give to others.

The first thing veterans say they want to do after they start healing is help other veterans heal too. They understand that level of pain few others can but on the flip side, they understand how wonderful it is to make the "P" in PTSD stand for the peace within themselves and with others.

I am tired of writing negative stories about what has gone wrong. I was starting to forget all the veterans I met over the years showing remarkable strength, courage and abundance of compassion. I don't want to forget any of them any more than I want to see more veterans lose the last battle after war.

From now until 12/13/14, the only topic I will write about is what is possible, sharing their stories and how amazing they are. Sure, I'll still post about the news reports I find across the country, but will not write about them. My job will be to address the biggest story of all and that is, more heal.