Are Awareness Raisers Satisfied with More Suicides?

Repeating Something Means Being Satisfied with Results

Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 19, 2017

What, no pushups? We've had more than enough evidence that this type of publicity stunt does no good at all. So why do it? Why continue to do something that doesn't work? Why continue to repeat a number that is not real? The really odd thing is, about 70 of them marched the 70 miles without knowing that number is a lot closer to the number of veterans taking their own lives everyday.

The only reason to repeat something is being satisfied with the results. Does that mean the awareness raisers are satisfied with the rise in suicides or are they satisfied with the publicity and funding they gain?

Grueling march from Fort Hood to State Capitol raises awareness of PTSD
KXAN Staff
Published: February 18, 2017

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Statistics show 20 veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder take their own lives each day.

It’s the reason about 70 people spent the last three days marching all the way from Fort Hood to the State Capitol in an event called Carry the Fallen, which is put on by the group Active Heroes.

That’s about 70 miles. And they did it with weights on their backs to symbolize and remember the vets who killed themselves.

Those who made the trek say walking that far with complete strangers brings you a lot closer together.
read more here

Here are the published results of a decade of raising awareness. 

Less serving but more suicides.

The Army’s reduction in force size, driven by budget cuts, was in fact accelerated by two years due to the severity of the sequester in FY 2013.2 From a height of 566,000 in FY 2011, the Army’s end strength in FY 2014 was on a downward slide to 490,000 Active Army soldiers by the end of the fiscal year. The ongoing debate between the White House and Congress (and within Congress) over funding levels as constrained by the Budget Control Act of 2011 will determine whether the Army is able to sustain a projected end strength of 450,000 or must reduce further to 420,000 soldiers.

The FY 2017 DoD budget request^[4] plan calls for an active duty end strength of 1,281,900, a decrease of 19,400 from the 2016 baseline as a result of decrements in the Army (15,000 fewer personnel) and Navy (4,400 fewer personnel) strength. The budget request also calls for a reserve component end strength of 801,200, a decrease of 9,800 personnel.

Chart from Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Report 2012

Less veterans but suicide numbers remained the same.

Number of veterans in US Census Data from 2000

26.4 million.

Number of veterans in US Census Data from 2016

21,369,602

The last suicide report from the Department of Veterans Affairs stated there are 20 veterans committing suicide per day.

Compared to the data from the 2012 report, which estimated the number of Veteran deaths by suicide to be 22 per day, the current analysis indicates that in 2014, an average of 20 Veterans a day died from suicide...

THE REPORT CONCLUDES: Approximately 65 percent of all Veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older. Veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults. This is a decrease from 22 percent in 2010. Since 2001, U.S. adult civilian suicides increased 23 percent, while Veteran suicides increased 32 percent in the same time period. After controlling for age and gender, this makes the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for Veterans. Since 2001, the rate of suicide among U.S. Veterans who use VA services increased by 8.8 percent, while the rate of suicide among Veterans who do not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent. In the same time period, the rate of suicide among male Veterans who use VA services increased 11 percent, while the rate of suicide increased 35 percent among male Veterans who do not use VA services. In the same time period, the rate of suicide among female Veterans who use VA services increased 4.6 percent while the rate of suicide increased 98 percent among female Veterans who do not use VA services.

This means that Congress must be content with the results as well. They keep writing the same type of Bills and funding them that have not worked.

This means that military leaders must be content since they keep pushing the same "resilience training" that caused the increase in suicides.

This means that all the awareness raisers out there must be content with the results since they keep repeating the same stunts all across the country.