Another Suicide Prevention Bill Preventing Prevention?

Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act still has the bubble wrap on it and the Jacob Sexton Act was signed in with the Defense Budget but already, here comes antoher prevention bill. This time it is Joe Waltz.

CNN Headline on this one is "22 veterans kill themselves every day" but they just don't seem all too interested in the fact that when congress started to prevent suicides, they were actually preventing prevention.

"One of the things that we do know is that veterans who seek care often get better." Tarantino told CNN. The problem, he says, is "the care they receive often doesn't give them what they need."

The Suicide Prevention for America's Veterans Act is a joint effort between Walsh and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America group. Founded in 2004, the 270,000 member organization is the first and largest organization for new veterans and their families.

"These men and women... are willing to sacrifice their lives for our country," Walsh said.

One group that appears to be the most vulnerable to suicides are veterans 50 years and older. According to the VA, 69 percent of veteran suicides come from that age group.

With 2012 having hit the historical rate of military suicides I tried to take what Wounded Times had put together since 2007. Hell, at the time there were over 20,000 posts to pull from. I figured "how hard could it be" since I had almost everything. At least that was how it started out and I ended up discovering just how far congress had spun out of control with all the hearings, speeches and bills. By the time The Warrior Saw, Suicides After War was finished, I felt pretty hopeless. I wondered why reporters hadn't told anyone about this massive abuse spread out. After all, when congress writes a bill, someone makes money and there were billions a year being paid out for the result of more suicides.

If you didn't read the book don't feel bad, not many did. It got into how Vietnam veterans pushed for all the research and funding going back 40 years on PTSD and suicides among veterans. There has never been a time in our history when more has been done on all of this and never a time in our history when results didn't matter.

Even I didn't figure it all out before I finally decided to end the research. Right now as I read about yet one more bill being pushed by more politicians I'm envisioning putting in a call to Criminal Minds.

This would take the computer skills of Penelope Garcia to figure out who did what when and Spencer Reid to be able to get through all the bills congress has written just since 2007. David Rossi would be up to his goatee in veterans' cases. Derek Morgan would have to be held back by Aaron Hotchner from punching out congressmen and as for JJ, she'd have to get back on the emergency broadcast system to let the whole county know exactly what's been going on so that people will get off their asses and start doing some demanding of their own about doing the right things instead of just "something" that is supposed to be "better than nothing" because veterans are dying in bulk.

The whole team goes after a serial killer after 3 bodies have been found and their "wheels are up in 30" so more than 22 a day wouldn't take them 30 to get started since they are already in the neighborhood.

More than 22 a day? Yes. States are reporting the rate of veterans committing suicide are double the civilian population and older veterans are the majority of them. However, the key here is the other percentage no one seems to want to talk about either. Younger veterans, the ones who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ones who had all the "prevention" training since 2007, are triple their peer rates. But hey, another member of congress will get his name on yet another bill and another group of veterans gets some press time for supporting the prevention of suicide prevention that actually should be working.