Do you care twice as many veterans commit suicide than civilians do?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 30, 2014

It looks like Wounded Times will finish off another year of the "does not play well with others" list again.

If you are among the people writing about how awful it is the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Bill was blocked, then you really need to get clued in once and for all. And I do mean all, as if veterans who listened to the speeches, the promises, hung onto hope and waited for the relief that never came.

Since 2007, Wounded Times has tracked all the bills out of Congress but we've also tracked the heartbreaking results. Each and everyday emails come in with site after site simply repeating the same old crap the national press has been spewing out without one single simple question being asked. If anything they've done before didn't work, why do it again? Do they care at all?

We're closing out yet another year of families devastated by someone they love surviving military service, usually after several tours of duty, and still having to visit graves instead of sharing lives. I don't know about you, but I am damn sick and tired of it. Tired of excuses. Tired of this group and that group pretending they have the answers and know it all, when the results prove they are not even close. Tired of members of Congress doing whatever they can to get the veterans to vote for them but never once living up to the honor of earning it.

Above all, tired of others playing political games, putting raising funds over saving lives and getting their name in the newspaper while we count the names of the veterans in the obituary sections of the same publication. They are only 7% of the population but commit suicide at double the rate of civilians.

These were some of the reports from 2007 Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans

Dr. Steve Rathbun is the acting head of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of Georgia. CBS News asked him to run a detailed analysis of the raw numbers that we obtained from state authorities for 2004 and 2005. It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets.

New study reflects much larger percentage of veterans than previous studies, National Institute Mental of Health June 12, 2007 • Science Update

Male veterans in the general U.S. population are twice as likely as their civilian peers to die by suicide, a large study shows. Results of the research by Mark S. Kaplan, DrPH, and colleagues from Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University were published online June 11 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and will appear in the July issue.

To date, most studies on suicide among veterans have relied on data from those getting health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system. However, 75 percent of veterans do not get their health care through the VA. This study included 320,890 men age 18 and older in the general population, 104,026 of them veterans, whom researchers followed for 12 years.

Veteran Suicides Twice as High as Civilian Rates by Jeff Hargarten, Forrest Burnson, Bonnie Campo and Chase Cook, News21, Published Aug. 24, 2013

A 2007 law required the Department of Veterans Affairs to increase its suicide prevention efforts. In response to the Joshua Omvig Veteran Suicide Prevention Act — named for an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide in 2005 — the department’s efforts include educating the public about suicide risk factors, providing additional mental health resources for veterans and tracking veteran suicides in each state. The VA’s mental health care staff and budget have grown by nearly 40 percent over the last six years and more veterans are seeking mental health treatment. The law mandated that the VA design a comprehensive program to reduce veteran suicides. Provisions included training VA staff in suicide-prevention techniques, factoring mental health concerns in overall veteran health assessments, providing referrals at veterans’ request to treatment programs and designating suicide-prevention counselors at VA medical centers. It also required the VA to work with the other federal departments on researching the “best practices” for preventing suicides.

And this was the result of Congress writing bills after holding countless hearings on how to prevent them.

Veteran suicide rate double that of general population MISSOULA COUNTY, Will Wadley, KECI Weekend Anchor, Feb 27 2013

According to a new report released this month by the United States Veterans Affairs Office, in a country with one of the highest suicide rates in the world, Veterans are about twice as likely to take their own life as civilians. Montana has the highest per capita percentage of veterans in the country. Montana's also notable for having the highest suicide rate in the country. For veterans these, are statistics specialists at the Montana V.A. Center are painfully aware of, and are working hard to change.

Veterans and suicide: A national issue with local consequences Kirsti Marohn and David Unze, St. Cloud Times, August 25, 2014

Veterans also are dying from suicides at a higher rate than the general population, according to the Times analysis. The average rate of veteran suicides in Minnesota during that six-year period was 30 per 100,000 people, almost double the suicide rate of the overall population of 15.4 per 100,000.

Convoluted Claims Contributed to Suicides Tied to Military

Oregon

Rate of suicide among Oregon military veterans outpaces civilian rates Oregon Live, By Mike Francis, July 11, 2014
Military veterans made up 8.7 percent of Oregon's population between 2008 and 2012, but they accounted for 23 percent of the state's suicides during that period, according to a recent state report.
The self-inflicted deaths were committed most often by males, but the dead covered all age groups, including veterans of long-ended wars. In fact, the largest segment of suicide victims were men over the age of 55, according to statistics analyzed and reported from the Oregon Violent Death Reporting System by the Oregon Health Authority's Public Health Division.

Arizona

Arizona Veterans Suicide Rate Double That Of Civilians KJZZ, Anthony Cave, September 03, 2013 The rate of suicide among military veterans in Arizona is more than double the civilian rate. Advocates say veterans need more than benefits when returning from war.The average veteran suicide rate in Arizona from 2005 through 2011 is almost 43 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s according to data compiled by News21, a national reporting project based out of Arizona State University. And the rate should increase as more veterans return home.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs gives disability and college education benefits to veterans, but Thomas O’Donnell said a support system is lacking. He works with student veterans at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. The school specializes in suicide research.

Oklahoma

Suicide rate for Oklahoma veterans, active-duty military sees incline
The Norman Transcript, By Chase Cook, Oklahoma Watch, August 28, 2013
NORMAN — Oklahoma veterans and active-duty military personnel are killing themselves at twice the rate of civilians, despite increased efforts to address the problem.

The 2011 suicide rate for soldiers was about 44 per 100,000 population, according to an Oklahoma Watch analysis of Oklahoma State Department of Health data. This rate includes active-duty military as well as veterans from the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Gulf War, Vietnam, Korea and World War II. The civilian rate for people over the age of 18 was about 22 per 100,000.

In 2011, 141 of the state’s 684 suicides were veterans, according to state health department records

Utah

In our opinion: New bill tackles laudable effort of curbing veteran suicide Deseret News editorial Published: Wednesday, April 30 2014 Of the 18 Utah military personnel on active duty who died in 2013, at least 13 of them were the victims of suicide. Among military veterans living in Utah, the suicide rate is double that of the general population. The numbers are sobering. They speak to a growing need for programs on both local and national levels to better assist returning military combatants and their families.

Florida

Military, veteran suicides account for nearly one in every four in Florida ... but the numbers don't explain why, Rate is one of the nation's highest, Florida Times Union, By Clifford Davis, Apr 26, 2014
STATE NUMBERS STAGGERING

In Florida, the numbers are staggering.

Although veterans make up only 8 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for more than 25 percent of its suicides, according to the report.

Between 1999 and 2011, 31,885 suicides were reported in the state, according to the Florida Department of Health. That would mean more than 8,000 Florida veterans took their lives during those 13 years, according to the VA.

The numbers put Florida among states with the highest percentage of veteran suicides — but the numbers don't explain why.

“We’re still trying to figure that out,” said Caitlin Thompson, the deputy director of Suicide Prevention at the VA.

By now I am sure you now know a lot more than you've read before. Maybe now you'll care enough to make sure the next time you get an email about the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Bill being held up you'll understand why Clay and all the others deserved so much more from all of us.