Really not much more I can say that is more powerful than the report itself~
For the 3rd Quarter of 2018
74 in the Active ComponentSadly on track to average 500 for the year again~
18 in the Reserves
34 in the National Guard
So, how is that "suicide awareness" benefitting anyone other than the people getting publicity and bigger bank accounts?
UPDATE iCasualties.com
These are the combat deaths from 2012 to 2018
Afghanistan 557
Iraq 73
And yet, this is what happened with Canadian forces in 2018..."Fifteen Canadian Forces members killed themselves in 2018, according to the Department of National Defence. That was one fewer than the previous year and represented the fourth year in a row in which the number of military suicides declined since a rash of suicides in 2013 cast a spotlight on the issue."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/military-suicide-redouble-efforts-1.4972291
I am confused 22 a day how does that figure to these numbers?
ReplyDeleteGreat question Ken.
DeleteA lot of people are confused on the number "22" because that is all they hear. The latest report from the VA was 20 a day. Aside from the fact it was 20 a day back in 1999, when we had over 5 million more veterans living at the time, that also proves the "efforts" are not working. Then there are the reports themselves. Too many states do not track veteran suicides.
California and Illinois passed legislation to begin tracking them by adding military service to the death certificates. That is vital considering that less than half of the veterans are in the VA system.
Then there are the over 2.3 million veterans who were kicked out instead of treated. While not all of them had PTSD, the vast majority were serving honorably until they self medicated of acted out of because of it. They are not counted.
I have been crunching the numbers for over a decade, state by state, and using the numbers from the CDC.
Almost every state has the percentage of veterans committing suicide at double, or triple the civilian rate.
What we need to pay attention to are the numbers from the DOD, since they are more current. They have averaged 500 per year since 2012, no matter how many were serving at the time. That right there proves that all the "awareness" claims are not working.
It has been right there all the time but few bothered to see any of it, because it is easier to just look away and pretend they have a clue about how to change the outcome.
Oh I miss read combat deaths still in Nam.
ReplyDelete