Enlisted Soldiers Most Likely to Attempt Suicide

Back from work and here is the update.

First begin with the simple fact that all recruits received physical and psychological testing. That ends up leaving one question. If they are now saying these soldiers had preexisting conditions, then their tests failed to find mental health illnesses.

Then it moves onto the biggest question of all. Since the DOD has been doing Battlemind followed by Comprehensive Soldier Fitness as "prevention" programs, then why were they not even good enough to prevent non-deployed soldiers from wanting to die? How did they expect these programs to work on the deployed when they failed the "non-deployed?" Then how did they expect them to help the soldiers with multiple deployments?

As for Congress, why did they allow the DOD to keep spending millions/billions on the same programs when military suicides went up instead of down?

Those are basic questions that have not been answered. I doubt the brass has even been asked to explain any of that.

This is from the first DOD Suicide Report

The DoD’s Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee (SPARRC) provides a venue for collaboration among the Services’ Suicide Prevention Program Managers (SPPMs) and other stakeholders in the DoD’s suicide prevention mission. A standardized DoD suicide surveillance system was identified as a key goal. SPARRC developed a collaborative plan to synchronize surveillance efforts across Services while also seeking to maintain flexibility to address Service-specific needs. A web-based data collection process was identified as a key goal, and in 2007, a project plan was collaboratively developed with suicide surveillance program managers of all Services (Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps). An effort was made to develop a DoD system that built on the best characteristics from each of the Service-specific programs while also mapping, where possible, to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) to facilitate comparisons between military and civilian data. The resulting DoDSER uses an epidemiological data collection form to collect standardized data on suicide behaviors among Service Members. The DoDSER was launched 1 January 2008. All the Services are collecting DoDSERs on military suicide deaths [4]. The Army is also collecting DoDSERs on non-fatal suicide behaviors (see Annex B).

This report provides statistics for Calendar Year (CY) 2008, with detailed tables presented for DoDSER items. Annexes and Appendices include a copy of the DoDSER 2008 items, Service-specific data summaries, and additional analyses conducted on deployment status (Army only).

There were a total of 268 Service Member suicides in CY 2008 (Army = 140; Air Force = 45; Navy = 41; Marine Corps = 42). This includes 12 Reservists and 21 National Guard members on Active Duty (Army = 24; Air Force = 6; Navy = 1; Marine Corps = 2). The total of 268 cases includes cases that are pending final determination by the AFMES but are strongly suspected to be suicides by the DoD’s Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee (SPARRC).

Most had been treated for mental health

Yes 125 52%
Within 30 days 71 30%
Within 90 days (inclusive)a 95 40%

For 2009 DOD Suicide Report

The AFMES indicates that 309 Service Members died by suicide in 2009 (Air Force = 46; Army = 164; Marine Corps = 52; Navy = 47). This number includes deaths strongly suspected to be suicides but pending final determination.

The DOD added in deployment factors

Most suicides did not occur in theater. There were ten suicides (3%) in Operation Enduring Freedom and 33 (11%) in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Fifty-one percent of decedents had a history of deployment to Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom, and 7% had a history of multiple deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, or Kuwait. • Seventeen percent of decedents had reportedly experienced direct combat operations.

Now you get the idea. Just wish members of Congress did. If they had years ago, more lives could have been saved, less soldiers would have been kicked out instead of helped and as for veterans, they would not have ended up facing the higher likelihood of death back home than during combat.

You can read the read the reports here

DoDSER Annual Reports
CY 2013 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2012 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2011 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2010 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2009 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2008 DoDSER Annual Report

Check back later on this and I'll break it down for you. For now, it is not saying anything new and things are far from improved for those who said, "I'll risk my life for you." You'll see what I mean around 5:00 pm.

Newer Army soldiers found most likely to attempt suicide
Study says risk high for women, school dropouts
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Lindsey Tanner
JULY 09, 2015

CHICAGO — Wartime suicide attempts in the Army are most common in newer enlisted soldiers who have not been deployed, while officers are less likely to try to end their lives. At both levels, attempts are more common among women and those without a high school diploma, according to a study billed as the most comprehensive analysis of a problem that has plagued the US military.

Suicides in the military have gotten the most attention, but attempts sometimes have different contributing factors. They’re ‘‘an opportunity to intervene,’’ said Dr. Robert Ursano, psychiatry chairman at the Uniformed Services University and the study’s lead author.

The study analyzed records on nearly 10,000 suicide attempts among almost 1 million active-duty Army members during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, from 2004 to 2009. That compares with 569 Army suicide deaths during the same period reported by researchers last year in a different phase of the same study. Rates for both increased during that time.
read more here