Military Suicides: What Good Did It Do To Be Right?

I am drained. I can't possibly be the only person in this country wondering why the hell this latest bill out of congress deserves supporting. Then again, considering my email box is usually full of reasons why it should be supported, it is very lonely from where I sit.

Senate panel OKs bill to lower veteran suicide rate
The Associated Press
By Matthew Daly
January 21, 2015

WASHINGTON — A bill aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic among military veterans cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers vowed quick action on a measure that was blocked in the last session of Congress.

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee unanimously approved a bill named for Clay Hunt, a 26-year-old veteran who killed himself in 2011. The bill is aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic that claims the lives of 22 military veterans every day.

Aimed at reducing? Ok then what about all the other bills? Anyone figure out how to aim the right weapon to accomplish that? Nope! So far the only aiming is being done by a veteran with the gun in his hand and they usually don't miss.

Click the link to read the rest of the article if you can stand it. I can't. I had to leave this comment.

When will this ever end? How many more years of bills being passed while veterans pay for the failures of congress with their lives? How many more have to die before they figure out they had it wrong since the first bill in 2007 and then only reprinted more of the same?

HBO did a documentary back in 2013.

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Since 2001, more veterans have died by their own hand than in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, one veteran dies by suicide in America every 80 minutes. While only 1% of Americans has served in the military, former service members account for 20% of all suicides in the U.S.

Based in Canandaigua, NY and open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, the Veterans Crisis Line receives more than 22,000 calls each month from veterans of all conflicts who are struggling or contemplating suicide due to the psychological wounds of war and the challenges of returning to civilian life.

The timely documentary CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1 spotlights the traumas endured by America’s veterans, as seen through the work of the hotline’s trained responders, who provide immediate intervention and support in hopes of saving the lives of service members.

After serving their country overseas, many military veterans struggle with post-traumatic stress, depression and addiction. Since 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has answered about 900,000 calls. CRISIS HOTLINE highlights how its dedicated responders react to a variety of complex calls and handle the emotional aftermath of what can be life-and-death conversations. The film captures these extremely private moments, where the professionals, many of whom are themselves veterans or veterans’ spouses, can often interrupt the thoughts and plans of suicidal callers to steer them out of crisis. Hotline workers sometimes intervene successfully by seizing on the caller's ambivalence and illuminating his or her reasons for living.
read more here

Since its launch in 2007, the Veterans Crisis Line has answered more than 1.35 million calls and made more than 42,000 lifesaving rescues. In 2009, the Veterans Crisis Line added an anonymous online chat service and has engaged in more than 192,000 chats. In November 2011, the Veterans Crisis Line introduced a text-messaging service to provide another way for Veterans to connect with confidential, round-the-clock support, and since then has responded to more than 28,000 texts.

This means as bad as the numbers are with young veterans committing suicide triple their civilian peers and veterans in general double the civilian rate, it would be worse without this crisis line. But hey, why talk about this? It is a lot easier to just follow along and push to have another bill passed. 

Why come up with the change veterans have been waiting for? Why do something different since they have been paying for these failures with their lives?

The granddaddy of all these bills was the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention act passed by the Congress in 2007 and signed by President Bush in 2008.

This was part of it.

`(h) Hotline- In carrying out the comprehensive program, the Secretary may provide for a toll-free hotline for veterans to be staffed by appropriately trained mental health personnel and available at all times.

You can read everything else in the bill but you can find more of the same in every other bill they have pushed, passed, signed and funded.

Hint, these bills were in place before Clay Hunt and thousands of others committed suicide.

While we're on the subject, why would we want to talk about veterans facing off with police officers or committing suicide by cop? Or why talk about them still asking for help like Clay did only to discover the help he needed was not what he got? Why talk about the fact that no one has been held accountable for all the failures this far? Why talk about Congress listening to family members after someone they love made it back from combat but ended their pain the only way they could think of?

Why talk about the fucking fact that none of this is new?

If you want to keep spreading the message that this will do anything tomorrow, show up at your local cemetery because they'll be needing more graves for veterans.

Think I'm wrong? Well they thought I was wrong back in 2009 too when I said if the Army pushed Comprehensive Soldier Fitness they would see suicides increase and they did. Maybe you can tell me what good did it do to be right if they died faster?

UPDATE Add this to the above

CBS News: VA Patient Data Reveals Growing Number Of Suicide Attempts By Veterans 2008
"When you go through war, you're going to change permanently and totally for the rest of your life," said veteran Harold Pendergrass.

Pendergrass knows firsthand the hidden wounds of war. He served two tours in Vietnam.

"I carried a suicide note in my pocket for years," he said.

At 57, the former Army soldier has tried to take his own life three times, constantly wrestling with thoughts of killing himself.

"I sat around numerous times with a .44 in my mouth," he said. "But for some reason, I just couldn't pull the trigger. I don't know why."

Now, CBS News has obtained never-before seen patient data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, detailing the growing number of suicide attempts among vets recently treated by the VA.

The data reveals a marked overall increase - from 462 attempts in 2000 to 790 in 2007.

"This is highly statistically significant," said Dr. Bruce Levin, head of the biostatistics department at Columbia University. Levin is one of three experts who analyzed the data for CBS News.

"I'd characterize it as something that deserves further attention," Levin said. "Overall the data suggests about a 44 percent increase and that is not due to chance."

According to the experts, two age groups stood out between 2000 and 2007. First, ages 20-24 - those likely to have served during the Iraq-Afghan wars. Suicide attempts rose from 11 to 47.

And for vets ages 55 to 59, suicide attempts jumped from 19 to 117.

In both age groups, the attempted suicides grew at a rate much faster than the VA patient population as a whole.

In addition, this VA study, also obtained exclusively by CBS News, reveals the increasing number of veterans who recently received VA services ... and still succeeded in committing suicide: rising from 1,403 suicides in 2001 to 1,784 in 2005 - figures the VA has never made public.

And add this to that from today

A new study suggests that the suicide risk for Eldridge and other veterans who served in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is significantly higher – 41 to 61 percent higher -- than for the general population. The study, led by Department of Veterans Affairs and Army researchers, is the most comprehensive look to date at the suicide risk for veterans who were on active duty during the recent wars.