VA Suicides Bigger Than 1 Employee with Elf!

When I read the story yesterday I felt as if my head was exploding Manager of VA Clinic Made Fun of Veterans Committing Suicide Hanging an Elf? And now I think it just feels even worse after having a day to think so more about this.

VFW: Fire VA manager who sent email mocking vet suicides
IndyStar
Tony Cook

March 10, 2015

One of the nation's largest veteran organizations — the Veterans of Foreign Wars — is demanding the ouster of the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center supervisor responsible for an internal email that appears to mock veteran suicides with depictions of a Christmas elf pleading for medication and hanging itself from an electrical cord.

"There is nothing amusing about 22 veterans committing suicide every day and it is absolutely inexcusable that a VA supervisor would make light of any issue that veterans face," VFW National Commander John W. Stroud said in a statement.

"Ms. Paul might be the most caring and dedicated employee the VA has, but this senseless attempt at gallows humor has caused her to lose the respect and trust of veterans. It is for that reason that the VFW demands she be replaced as program manager. Trust within the military means everything; it should mean no less inside the VA."
read more here

They are right but more need to be fired. Think about it this way. You are a veteran with PTSD and sought help there. Would you feel as if you just got trashed by them? How about knowing other employees passed around the email and probably laughed? Then toss in the fact this person's bosses knew and did nothing about it until it hit the internet and the IndyStar got a hold of it. Would you feel good about your care then?

Ok, then add in being a family member of a veteran who committed suicide knowing how much he/she suffered even after turning to the VA. How would you feel then? These stories are only out of Indiana but since this crap happened at the VA Clinic, it matters across the country.

But we're not just talking about veterans being stung by this. We're talking about active military members and what they go through all the time too.

(Jeff) Saxton's son, Army Spc. Jacob Sexton, 21, shot himself to death in October 2009 at a Muncie movie theater, where he was watching a show with his two brothers and a friend. A veteran of combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Sexton was home on a 15-day leave when he died.

It matters to all military and veterans as well as their families. It should matter to any caring citizen. So where are the crowds showing up to protest this deplorable treatment of everyone who served this country?

Suicide rate for veterans far exceeds that of civilian population
Nearly one in five suicides nationally is a veteran, 49,000 took own lives between 2005 and 2011
Public Integrity
May 19, 2014

The mother of Kimberly Agar, Margy Agar, talks about her daughter's struggles with symptoms related to a traumatic brain injury. Kimberly died by suicide in Germany in 2011. Margy Agar now spends her time at home, suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress, and speaking out against mental illness stigma in the military.
Video by Chase Cook, News21

Margy is a friend of mine and I wanted to know what she thought about all of this.

"It is a slap in the face to our recent and past veterans suffering from mental health issues every single day. It is a complete lack of understanding of not only what the veterans have been through, but also what the active-duty soldiers are currently going through whether downrange or a combat veteran that has reenlisted onto foreign soil where there is absolutely no support system.

My background is a degree in secondary education with an emphasis on physical and health education which includes mental health education. I cannot grasp what this lady who is in a mental health career was even thinking about when she she stated the things she did.

Not only do the veterans suffer but so do the families and I am sick and tired of everybody thinking because suicide is a mental health issue that mental health is a complete joke! In my speeches I talk about that we all have brains we know that we just can't see them.

It also means we cannot see the injuries that affect the brain but it does not mean that they are not there, psychologically or from a traumatic brain injury which is a physical injury when left untreated causes depression and can lead to suicide. I don't think it's one bit funny at all!

I lost my daughter because there was no support system medically, in the military, and because she was overseas, the family could not intervene. Her older brother lost not only a sister in blood but a sister in arms. The continuation of this tunnel vision has got to stop. Until someone has gone through the trauma of losing their soldier to suicide they cannot possibly understand the hopelessness and sadness and pain that they are all going through, and behind closed doors the trickle-down effect in a family who has to deal with the repercussions with angst while facing the stigma of suicide.

It is no joke when someone physically loses their limbs in an IED. So when the hidden demons of war and lack of support cause someone to take their life, I absolutely find no humor in that situation whatsoever!

I can only pray that this was an isolated incident but with stories that I have heard it's hard for me to believe."

Margy Agar
Gold Star Mom Sgt Kimberly Agar US ARMY PH
Blue Star Mom Tsgt S M Agar USAF RES

Military Leaders, Veterans Groups Struggle With Suicide Rate
Nonprofit Group Offers Free Counseling With Help From Lilly Grant
The Indy Channel
Nov 11, 2010

Many places offer vets free counseling services, but the VA reports that half of all veterans with PTSD never seek help.

Chancellor Keesling, a 25-year-old Army specialist from Indiana, took his own life while serving his second tour of duty in Iraq in 2009.

"We miss him greatly. He was a wonderful boy," said his father, Greg Keesling, a Vietnam veteran. "Our soldiers have been through two wars, two very long wars, and they are stressed, very, very stressed."
read more here

That report came out in 2010, but as Senator Joe Donnelly was trying to get his bill passed, he made another stunning statement on members of the military committing suicide.

U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly says he wants greater focus on preventing suicide among active-duty military servicemembers and veterans. That includes increasing outreach to vets.

Last year, more combat troops took their own life than died in combat in Afghanistan. And Senator Joe Donnelly says 43 percent of service members who committed suicide never sought help. He says trying to combat the problem of military and veteran suicide needs to involve erasing the stigma of seeking help.

“They feel like, ‘Well, I don’t want to burden somebody’ or ‘I don’t want anybody to have to worry about me’ or ‘I don’t want anybody to have to spend an extra thought on me,’” he says.

Then when you read the reports from across the country it gets worse. That means that 57% committed suicide after they sought help across the nation but as the VA reports they have 1,000 veterans attempting suicide every month within their system, along with the erroneously reported suicides of 22 a day, this despicable stunt by the VA employee getting paid to treat veterans will feed the stigma every veteran fights everyday.

VA touts progress on suicides, data tell another story
USA Today
Dennis Wagner
August 25, 2015

A fact sheet published by the VA's Suicide Prevention Program in 2012 reported 18 veteran suicides daily, while a "Suicide Data Report" issued by the same program in the same year put the number at 22. In 2013, the VA and Defense Department published a clinical-practice guide saying 18 to 22 die daily.

Even the higher number is suspect. Craig Northacker of Vets-Help.org said death records do not capture the real tally of veterans' suicides, which he estimates at 30 to 35 daily.

Thompson acknowledged the data dilemma: "Numbers of suicides are just very, very difficult to get, period."

But other evidence hints at the magnitude of the crisis. As of June 2012, the national VA Suicide Prevention Line was getting roughly 17,000 calls per month — up more than 17 percent from 2009. Four out of five were veterans seeking help, nearly one-third of them contemplating suicide.
read more here

Their lives should matter!

Suicide Rate Spikes in Vietnam Vets Who Won't Seek Help
ABC News
By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
Digital Reporter
GOOD MORNING AMERICA
May 3, 3012

Among those not seeking help are Vietnam veterans, still after all these years. But suicide rates among Vietnam veterans are the highest of any particular group, according to John Draper, project director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. read more here

So as the VA claims they are doing what they can to end the stigma of seeking help for PTSD, and the military claims they are doing the same thing at the same time they are discharging thousands under "personality disorders" this comes out and what they do about it matters. It is bigger than 1 employee and and an elf.

UPDATE From WISH News

VA manager on leave after email mocks veteran suicide
WISH News
By Bennett Haeberle
Published: March 10, 2015

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A VA health clinic manager has been removed from her position and placed on administrative leave after an email she sent others staffers appeared to mock veteran suicide and mental health issues.

Administrators at the VA Roudebush Medical Center in Indianapolis said the employee, Robin Paul, was removed from her position on Monday pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Julie Webb, a spokeswoman for VA Roudebush, denied that the move was a form of discipline.

“This is not discipline,” she told 24-Hour News 8. “It is taking her out of that position while we do an investigation.”
read more here