Veteran’s family says his disappearance over weekend caused by poor VA care
FOX 31 News
BY DAVE YOUNG
MARCH 13, 2017
Somehow, the survivalist-trained Marine ended up in a Greeley jail Monday after stealing a sweater and something to eat. He still wasn't wearing shoes.
BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- It was just after 9:20 p.m. Saturday at Cory Hixon's Broomfield apartment when his family says the 33-year-old became distraught and jumped off a balcony wearing no shoes and no coat, disappearing into the night.
Two days later, as family watched and waited desperately for news, police with tracking dogs searched the area where they believe he might have gone.
“He's trying to leave so that he's no longer a burden to our family, which he's not,” said Cory’s wife, Shala Hixon.
During two combat tours in Iraq, the decorated U.S. Marine lost an eye during a firefight and suffered a traumatic brain injury from a mortar round that left him unconscious.
The injuries left the father of two young children with severe memory loss, anxiety, migraines and post traumatic stress disorder.
read more here
As with most things, numbers are really important but data is king. If the researchers do not tell where numbers came from, it is up to the reviewer to put the pieces together. So far, I'm totally confused.
As the number of veterans living in the US has gone down since 1999, and "efforts" have increased to the point where "awareness" has become a mega money maker, the number of reported suicides should have gone down after all these years. So why are they virtually the same?
This is such a serious issue and so far I've seen little to do with seeking answers as much as folks run around seeking publicity, including politicians.
Department Veterans Affairs 2016 Suicide Report
Start with these charts from the report.
2013 Report from Alaska
Veteran Suicides Twice as High as Civilian Rates
by Jeff Hargarten, Forrest Burnson, Bonnie Campo and Chase Cook | News21
News21 filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the raw data collected by the VA to this point, but it was denied because the “disclosure of raw research data poses a serious threat to the scientific process” and because of fears the information would be misinterpreted without peer review.
Most states provided veteran suicide information gleaned from death certificates. VA research, Kemp said, shows death certificates are about 90 percent accurate and “good enough” to help understand veteran suicides.
Veterans are over-represented among suicides compared to the general population, a trend seen in most states between 2005 and 2011.
For example, in Alaska, veterans were about 14 percent of the population, but represented about 21 percent of all suicides in 2010. The same year in Washington, Census data showed veterans were about 11 percent of the population, but state vital statistics showed they represented about 23 percent of suicides.
Florida
Military, veteran suicides account for nearly one in every four in Florida ... but the numbers don't explain why
Jacksonville Times Union
By Clifford Davis
Posted April 26, 2014
STATE NUMBERS STAGGERING
In Florida, the numbers are staggering.
Although veterans make up only 8 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for more than 25 percent of its suicides, according to the report.
Between 1999 and 2011, 31,885 suicides were reported in the state, according to the Florida Department of Health. That would mean more than 8,000 Florida veterans took their lives during those 13 years, according to the VA.
The numbers put Florida among states with the highest percentage of veteran suicides — but the numbers don't explain why.
Aside from Florida, most states report the veteran suicide rate is double the civilian population rate.
Oklahoma Veterans Commit Suicide at Twice the Rate of Civilians
By Chase Cook August 27, 2013
The veteran suicide rate in Oklahoma is down from a peak of about 46 in 2008, but researchers said that year had increased suicides due to the Great Recession. The rate dropped to about 39 in 2009 and has since climbed back up.
But the puzzling thing is that California does not tract veteran suicides.
Valley Assembly members introduce legislation to track veteran suicide rates
Fresno Bee
BY CHUEYEE YANG
January 20, 2017
Assemblymen Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno and Jim Patterson, R-Fresno introduced legislation Monday that would require the State of California to track how many veterans die by suicide.
AB 242 would require the California Department of Public Health to send veteran suicide rates and data from the electronic death registration system to the California Department of Veterans Affairs and the Legislature.
And in Illinois, they do not have the ability to list it on their death certificates.
Cullerton advanced Senate Bill 1693 to allow deceased veterans with military service to include their veteran status, branch of military and the period of time served in the military on their death certificate.
I went through the suicide report from the VA and they say they used the VA, DOD and CDC for reports, but with these two states not even tracking the numbers, how good is this report? The next question is, when do reporters actually start to ask for answers? When do folks running around the country actually get held accountable for "raising" awareness cash while the problem veterans face has gotten worse and when the hell do they start to raise awareness about the rest of the story?
Marine scandal hits home for Ohio women veterans
The Columbus Dispatch
Rita Price
March 10, 2017
"You raised your head a little higher, you clicked your heels a little harder and you walked on," Gilliam told an audience at the Ohio History Center. "Today, I'm hoping, it is different."
At 94, World War II veteran Ruby Gilliam would like to be able to say she outlived the problem. But she knows that the fight against discrimination and harassment are far from over for America's military women.
"I used to think, 'Someday, this will change,''' Gilliam said. "There we were, serving our country. It was all very disturbing. It still is."
A panel of female veterans — some more than a half-century younger than Gilliam — joined her Friday to celebrate Women's History Month and to share their stories of struggle and accomplishment, of hope and honor.
Gilliam was a young widow who had lost her husband to the war when she shocked her family and joined the military herself. She still considers the moment she donned her WAVES uniform the proudest of her life, more so, she said to laughter, than giving birth.
That certainty made the slurs hurt and bewilder all the more. With few avenues for complaint, she and others tried to respond with determination.
read more here
A Lifeline for Troubled Veterans
New York Times
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
MARCH 11, 2017
There are roughly 500,000 veterans with less than honorable discharges, including more than 100,000 who left the service during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The government does not know what percentage of these veterans have acute mental health problems, but it became apparent after the Iraq drawdown that many were struggling.
Credit Caroline Gamon
After the United States withdrew troops from Iraq in 2011, thousands of combat troops were expelled from the force with less than honorable discharges as the military came under pressure to downsize quickly. This left a large number of veterans — including many kicked out for minor infractions — without access to health care and other benefits that are granted to service members who leave the armed forces with honorable discharges.
After being cut off from care and benefits, many turned to drugs and painkillers, often to relieve physical pain and mental distress that resulted from combat. Some wound up homeless. Others killed themselves.
Last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs took an important, belated step to protect tens of thousands of former service members who risked their lives in war zones. Starting this summer, the agency decided, it will provide emergency mental health care to some veterans who received less than honorable discharges.
“Our goal is simple: to save lives,” David Shulkin, the secretary of veterans affairs, said on Tuesday as he announced the change in policy during testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “Veterans who are in crisis should receive help immediately.”
read more here
How many veterans are we talking about? Consider that California has the largest percentage of veterans, then reconsider the fact that none of these veterans were part of the suicide reports.
California has the largest number of veterans of any state in the nation with nearly 2.1 million vets calling the Golden State home. That’s about 9% of the nation’s entire veteran population. The state also has the highest number of homeless veterans in the country with a staggering estimated 50,000 living on the streets. It follows that veterans make up 26% of the state’s homeless population. Furthermore, the state estimates that 62% of homeless veterans have been diagnosed with both substance abuse issues and mental health problems. Additional benefits and services include tuition waivers for college, job placement services, vocational training, assistance with applying for aid from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, burial in a state veterans cemetery and special outreach programs for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
VETERANS GATHERED TO SUPPORT BILL THAT WILL TRACK VETERAN SUICIDE IN CALIFORNIA
ABC 30 News
By Cory James
Friday, March 10, 2017
Currently data on veteran suicide is collected by county coroners, but that information is not being used by the state to help come up with ways to improve suicide prevention outreach and other programs.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Military Police Veteran Norbie Lara knows the danger that comes with protecting our country and serving overseas. In 2004, while in Iraq, he was injured when the vehicle he was in was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.
"Which took my arm, my lieutenant's left arm-- she was sitting right behind me."
But Lara says the risk of returning home is often just as bad as being out on the battlefield, because for some it is a homecoming that ends in suicide.
"I lost a buddy, Tim, to suicide and I attempted to take my life a couple times."
Because of that, Lara is a supporter of this new bill-- AB 242. The bill will require the State Department of Public Health to collect data on veteran suicides and report it to the legislature and the Department of Veteran Affairs each year.
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