When Will They Ever Learn a Non-Number Leaves Out Healing?

Here we go again with the non-number of veterans committing suicide. The really bad part is this report is from the VA blog!

Before you read what could have been a wonderful thing to do, catch up what you may have missed, also from the VA regarding veterans committing suicide.

A shocking finding was that California is on the list, yet California does not track veteran suicides. They are going to start doing it. For the veterans they know about the rate was 39.1.

For Florida Veteran Suicide Rate was 40.4 yet state average was 18.8 with the majority over the age of 50. Go to the link and look up your state. Here are a few more.

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -Newly released data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that in 2014, the most recent year on file, 127 Nevada veterans committed suicide. The statistic makes Nevada's veteran suicide rate 60 per 100,000 veterans, well above the national average of 38 per 100,000.

But the suicide rate for Michigan was higher than national averages for the 18-34 age group at 122.2 per 100,000 compared with the national rate of 70.4 and the Midwestern rate of 79.2. The veteran suicide rate also is high in Michigan for the age range of 35-54 at 52.3 compared with the 47.7 national rate, according to the Michigan VA data sheet.

The good thing is that veterans being treated at the VA are still less likely to commit suicide. The bad thing is, for all of this "awareness raising" about a non-number, it is time to change the conversation on healing awareness if we really want to change the topic from suicide to surviving!

Ring the bell: Veterans call for Veterans to help end suicide

VAntage Point

September 20, 2017

All eyes are on a Veteran in the back of the hall talking about a guy from the old unit.  His buddy had said “I’ll get over this.” But he never did.  Then there was the final step, suicide.

Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines: active duty and Veterans of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and peacetime stand together.  There’s a brass bell made from a shell casing off of a war ship positioned at center stage.  This is Suicide Awareness Night, and the hall is packed.

VFW Post 3631 in Aurora sits at the crossroads of Colfax and Tower Road outside the city of Denver where the plains of eastern Colorado begin.  Just over a year ago the post’s commander, Gary Anguilm, read in an article that 22 Veterans were dying by suicide every day.  “Being Veterans we decided we wanted to do something about it,” Anguilm said.

And that’s when the idea came to invite the community to come together on the 22nd of every month at the VFW, to learn about Veteran and military suicide and how to help.

Anguilm is a Vietnam Marine Corps Veteran who served two tours in the infantry between 1964 and 1966.  He organizes this event with meticulous attention to detail, starting at 5 p.m. with socializing fueled by burgers, hot dogs and fries – free for all Vets.   It’s a way to honor them, with the added benefit of drawing in a crowd.  At 6 p.m. sharp everything stops, and everyone rises for the Star Spangled Banner.  A Navy officer comes to the stage.  She strikes the bell 22 times in remembrance of each Veteran lost.

The number of Veterans who die by suicide each day changes over time, and right now, that number is down to 20.

read more here