"Stunning": CBS News Discovers "Hidden Epidemic" of Military Suicides

Tonight CBS will air the first of a two-part series on the "hidden epidemic" of military suicides, revealing numbers that CBS calls "stunning." The report examines data on the suicide rate amongst veterans once they return home, which indicates a serious mental health issue — and a hidden mortality rate.

"We first started researching military suicides because it had never been done before," said Armen Keteyian, CBS News' chief investigative correspondent in a statement forwarded by CBS News. "But when all the data was collected, we were astonished. I had no idea how much of an epidemic CBS uncovered. We expect this to be a wake up call."

Keteyian previewed the segment on the "CBS Early Show" today, saying that the CBS five-month study found that vets were "more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 as non-vets." Chillingly, though the Veterans Affairs Department estimates that "some 5,000 ex-servicemen and women will commit suicide this year,' that's a lowball estimate. Said Keteyian: "Our numbers are much higher than that, overall."

[Update, 5:30pm: CBS has just released some of those numbers: "At least 120 Americans who served in the U.S. military killed themselves per week in 2005, CBS News learned in a five-month investigation into veteran suicides. That's 6,256 veteran suicides in one year, in 45 states."]

According to a CBS spokesperson, the report represents the first time an actual count of veteran suicides at home has been tallied, as opposed to estimates. "We also have number from the DOD of active duty suicides that we believed have never been reported before dating back to 1995," said the spokesperson. "Many believe, including the family members, that they VA hasn't done a true nationwide count of the numbers (which are stunning) because they just don't want to know." This echoes findings in a CBS report on the matter back in January 2004, which focused on soldier suicides during deployment but which also noted that the Pentagon did not count post-release suicides, and that a pre-Iraq war army study had predicted "an impending soldier-suicide crisis" (which, according to critics, was "largely ignored").

The two-part series will focus tonight on the numbers, and tomorrow on how the Dept. of Veterans Affairs is handling this problem (our guess, based on the above: Not well). According to CBS, tonight's segment runs 5 minutes — long for a newscast (though tonight is a single-sponsor broadcast (Pfizer) which will definitely save a few minutes).

Military suicides have been in the news recently owing to the passage last month of the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act (HR. 327), named for 22-year-old Army Reservist Joshua Omvig who commited suicide a few months after his return from Iraq. The bill "directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop and implement a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans," by virtue of better screening of veteran patients for mental health, tracking of veterans, better suicide prevention training for VA staff (including designating one suicide-specific counselor at each facility), and a 24-hour mental-health care, including a hotline. The legislation also requires the VA to report back on "status, timeline and costs for complete implementation within 2 years" within 90 days (i.e. by late January). Hopefully they can reverse the trend. If not, hopefully CBS will still be there.

The Veteran Suicide Epidemic [CBS News] (video here)
Vets' Suicide Rate "Stunning" [CBS News]

Related:
Veterans' Suicides: a Hidden Cost of Bush's Wars [Alternet]
Paul Rieckhoff: Suicide: Vets Fight The War Within [HuffPo]
H.R. 5771 [109th]: Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act [GovTrack.us]

Comments

[peacekitten]

each and every death in war is a tragedy that does not have to be. the suicides are particularly painful, because in their return home, the society that sent them to battle has one last chance to help them win their inner wars.

instead, soldiers are taught that to ask for help is to admit a weakness. in fact, to voluntarily admit a vulnerability takes an extraordinary amount of courage. it requires a leap of faith, a trust that it will be met with compassion, and not taken advantage of. asking for help requires strength.

we send these men and women off to war. they are taught to kill or be killed. we place upon them the impossible demand of expecting them not to lose their humanity in the midst of barbarity and the most extreme fear any animal can know, the fear for its survival.

to expect them to return to their old lives as if nothing had ever happened, without help, without addressing the emotional issues of what they have endured, is beyond folly. it's absurd.

we send them to fight for us. the least we can do is fight for them when they return home. a soul can die even if the body still lives.

surely somewhere amongst the unfathomable budgets for bullets and bombs, the money can be found to provide appropriate medical care to prevent as many of these deaths as possible. even one is too many.

[ChiGuy]

The casualties of the war your government doesn't want you to know about.

HuffPo, THIS should be the main headline.
You gave a ton of time to the FundRace crap, but this falls to mid-page the same day it gets released??

Shame on you.

[Freedoms Friend]

What really messes with my mind is that this ASTOUNDING news is rated of less import that Hillarys f_______ tip in some cafe!
Huffington Post your are beginning to really disgust me.

[UncleLiberal]

In my humble books, a veteran who kills themself upon returning home should be counted as a death in battle. If it weren't for this stupid war they would still be alive, just the same as those who die "over there". My .02 for what it's worth.

[ceasenake]

Suicide has always been a problem in the military.

[gonnuts]

You all act like this is something new.

Since this country first came to be we've treated our soldiers like so much garbage.

Check the history of Gen. Smedley Butler (2 time MoH) and see what the ruling elite that sends people off to wars that they invent really care about those that fought said wars for what they thought were "noble causes".

Listen to Kissinger, "Soldiers are nothing but dumb animals to be used by the rulers of the world."

Listen to Hitler, "It's good for the leaders of nations that the people do not think."

Now listen to this, if we don't stop the coming attack on Iran ...

[Counterglow]

It might be illuminating to compare the rate of female suicide in the military and civilian populations. Women attempt suicide at rates similar to men, but typically succeed only about a tenth as often (if I remember correctly).

If female soldiers vary significantly from this model, it might provide some insight into the scope of the problem.

[DannyEastVillage]

if i knew about it, how the hell can CBS be "stunned"?

liars.

[NChooseK]

I know it's supposed to by RIGHT WING websites that burn CBS' toast, but I've seen the data on some of this stuff and there is no major difference between veteran suicide rates and and the rest of the population. There are some sub-categories that show a major difference, but in the main, not that much difference in rates found in other samples with the same gender ratios.

The thing is, men kill themselves at a much higher rate than women, and the veteran population has a much higher percentage of males than the general population does. While the national average hovers at around 11 suicides per 100,000 population, the male rate is a little under 18 and the female rate is a little under 5. A sample with a lot of males should be nearer to 18 than it is to 11, and many of the rates quoted are around 18 or a little higher.

There are some subcategories where the rates are around 30 per 100,000 and that is significant.

This is not unlike when the number of traffic fatalities for a three-day weekend are predicted. All they do is take the yearly rate, divide by 365 then multiply by 3, the same thing you would do for any three day period.

There is less to this story than meets the eye. But this would entail someone at CBS being numerically savvy, and that isn't the case at many news agencies.

[FreedomCorpse]

As soon as they started extending tours, it only meant more ingrained PTSD instead of the more typical 1 year tours of vietnam.
Oh why are we outsourcing jobs and manufacturing to china, that terrible communist threat I remember the war mongers hyping in the past?

[ConcernAmerican]

dog soldier,

your post brought tears to my eyes. My father was also a soldier, he served with the US Army, he as a POW. I've been doing volunteer work for Vietnam Vets for many years now, those who can't live in our society. I oppose this illegal war of Bush from the very beginning, I knew what will happen to our returning soldiers, I call them the "walking wounded." I've seen how much they've suffered during the vietnam war, I have seen also the effect of this illegal war in Iraq to our returning soldiers. The only thing I can do is listen to them and try to comfort them as much as I could. There was one soldier that returned from Iraq over a year ago, he was in pieces, he can't deal with the carnage he had witnessed while he was there. A lot of our soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is suffering from PTSD, majority of them don't get the help that they need. Bush have shutdown many veterans hospitals, the remaining hospitals are UNDERFUNDED. Right now, we are spending $350 millions PER DAY in Iraq, and yet we can't spare the same amount for our brave young men and women who risk their lives for Bush and Oil Companies.

[expatsteve]

Anyone know what CBS has been investigating for the past 5 years while these soldiers are dying?

For a recent story on a soldier in Iraq's suicide, check this month's Rogue Voice:
http://www.therouguevoice.blogspot.com

He was apparently overcome by grief and guilt after killing an Iraqi civilian doctor at a checkpoint.

[hootie1fan]

If you close your eyes & ignore what's going on, can you really claim the issue is "hidden"?????

[1man1voicenovote]

A Flag-draped coffin.

[noamjunior]

the only way this story could have a happy ending is if the GOP jerks that lied us into this war followed suit