Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Report
Limitations of Existing Data
Currently available data include information on suicide mortality among the population of residents in 21 states. Veteran status in each of these areas is determined by a single question asking about history of U.S. military service. Information about history of military service is routinely obtained from family members and collected by funeral home staff and has not been validated using information from the DoD or VA. Further, Veteran status was not collected by each state during each year of the project period. Appendix B provides a listing of the availability of Veteran identifiers by state and year.
Further, this report contains information from the first 21 states to contribute data for this project and does not include some states, such as California and Texas, with larger Veteran populations. Information from these states has been received and will be included in future reports.
According to the US Census 2013 estimate, the total population of the US was 316,218,839. There were 21,853,912 veterans in this country with 1,606,758 of them living in Florida. This is my state.
Military, veteran suicides account for nearly one in every four in Florida ... but the numbers don't explain why
Rate is one of the nation's highest
By Clifford Davis
Apr 26, 2014
Tracking Veteran Suicides
Center for Public Integrity
Suicide rate for veterans far exceeds that of civilian population
Jeff Hargarten
Forrest Burnson
Bonnie Campo
Chase Cook
August 30, 2013
Veterans commit suicide at double and sometimes triple the rates of civilian suicides, with the rates varying from state to state. The veteran suicide rate has grown annually at more than double the percentage of the civilian rate.
Suicide rates by state
News21 calculated veteran and civilian suicide rates based on mortality data received from most states. The rate is the average number of suicide deaths per 100,000 people in each state's veteran and adult civilian populations, respectively. Years 2005 to 2011 had the most complete available information.
(Veteran Suicides State Interactive Map)
No data for DC, FL or NE
"The suicide rate among present and former members of the military “is twice as high” as the rate among people who have never served in the military" U.S. Sen. Richard BlumenthalVeteran suicides Average percentage of all suicides among
veterans between 2005 and 2011.
Percentage of all suicidesAK 19.94%AL 24.06%AR 21.56%AZ 22.6%CA 18.82%CO 21.62%CT 14.42%DE 16.83%GA 18.26%HI 14.79%ID 24.6%IL 17.72%IN 17.2%IA 20.02%KS 22.25%KY 11.71%LA 18.92%MA 9.81%ME 23.02%MD 17.92%MI 19.42%MN 18.61%MS 19.89%MO 22.1%MT 26.43%NC 19.94%ND 22.02%NH 20.58%NJ 13.96%NM 21.35%NV 22.74%NY 15.27%OH 20.01%OK 21.9%OR 24.09%PA 20.44%RI 17.27%SC 22.51%SD 20.25%TN 19.32%TX 18.57%UT 16.04%VA 20.81%VT 15.17%WI 19.69%WA 25.25%WV 24.39%WY 21.49%
What good has it done to talk about suicide awareness all these years? What good has it done to talk about "suicide prevention" when all the stories are about successful suicides? What good has it done for members of congress to sit and listen to families after their hearts have been ripped out when all of this is the outcome of decades of research?
Do we keep raising awareness of the problems without raising awareness of what is working? Do we keep pushing failures or do we start spreading word about what has succeeded?
If the numbers are not enough to bother you, consider this. These folks were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of others. They were not prepared to have their lives put at greater risk by others they were promised help from.
