Military Suicides Require New Prevention Office, Congressional Task Force Tells Pentagon

WASHINGTON — Rushing to stem historically high rates of military suicides, the service branches set up prevention programs that lacked strategic planning and so don't work as well as they could, a report said Tuesday.

The Pentagon should create a new high-level office to set strategy and coordinate prevention programs across the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, said a task force report ordered by Congress last year.

More than 1,100 members of the armed forces killed themselves from 2005 to 2009 and suicides are rising again this year. The sharpest increases have been in the Army and Marine Corps, the services most stretched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The task force commends the armed forces for the suicide prevention initiatives it has undertaken and knows of no other employer that has focused as much attention and resources on suicide prevention," said the report by a 14-member panel of military and civilian doctors as well as other civilians involved in suicide and family issues. "However, the task force found that the current vast expansion of suicide prevention initiatives across the services was developed rapidly and separately by each service for immediate execution."

It said that despite the "extraordinary effort" made by the services to deal with the suicide crisis, the programs "could benefit from re-engineering" because they have some inefficiencies and gaps, in some cases overlap or are not implemented evenly.

Sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday, the report makes 76 recommendations.

Comments

[nmaddog7]

05:06 AM on 08/30/2010

Anyone wishing to know why the suicide rate is so high, it's because the amount of people surviving traumatic injuries is at a record high. I'm a survivor a terrible accident that has left me permanently in chronic pain so I know about this. The problem has to do with employment and modern society. Even if you are a soldier, a chronic injury in the current jobs market means unemployability for the average person. Unless you are married, or have your own family, unemployment means isolation from society and from people. It perpetuates itself b/c no one wants an unemployed friend, leading to less contacts who are in the workplace. Most psychologists who advise disabled people say to use humor to warm people up to dealing with a disabled person, unfortuanately, not everyone is a comedian, Kostyra disabled people I know aren't to make light of their injury to the general public.
As we will learn, survivorship and life with chronic disability in a post industrial society is not conducive to life. Havard recently did a study finding that people with chronic mental disabilities fared much better than expected in 3rd world preindustrial societies because they were given regarded tasks by the villagers and were much less isolated than in the progressive West.
Thus is not to out blame on West and it's workers, most people in the US are barely getting by, the blame is in a capitalist society whose dysfunctionality results in no space for injures vets.

[Cilla McCain]

06:45 AM on 08/27/2010

ALL unattended military death investigations require a non-biased review office. This Congressional Task Force is making recommendations to the Pentagoon based on incomplete investigations where suicide is only assumed. The DoD documentation states this fact clearly. According to military policy, all unattended deaths are supposed to be treated as homicide until proven otherwise. Unfortunately the reverse is true.

[hellboundtrain]

04:54 AM on 08/26/2010

It is not a task force or a high level office that is needed, but a return to sanity by allowing people everywhere to live their lives doing what they do best. What is it that they do best? Use their time and energy to create families, homes, jobs, getting educated to further their life's goals, or by figuring it out as they move along their own unique pathway.

[hellboundtrain]

04:43 AM on 08/26/2010

Isn't it obvious that keeping young men and women from following their natural inclination to create something worthwhile, stunning and singular with their finite, but compelling, life's energy and time gives many a reason to "opt out?" Not everyone wants to be part of a politician-mandated military program in perpetuity; it is too limiting.

[hellboundtrain]

05:04 AM on 08/26/2010

With my comment, I did not want to say "many", perhaps I should have use the word "some," as some decide to commit suicide, but the fact is, and the point of the article, that it is many. Many more people now, than before, commit suicide in the military. And, is the number of people that commit suicide after they are out also being tracked?

Brother committed suicide almost 38 years after returning from Nam; PTSD related. Very painful for he and us, not the politicians that created the mess.

[Richard McRae]

05:40 PM on 08/25/2010

After 9 years of service, getting out, going through a divorce, dealing with working 2 jobs just to pay bills, and living in an area where I knew no one (moved to be with the wife after getting out, before the divorce) I was having a really tough time of dealing with things. I called the VA and asked if they offered a counseling service for service vets who were having a hard time adjusting to civilian life or were going through a hard time. No medication or anything mind you, just a counselor to talk to.

I was told that if I hadn't seen combat I was ineligible for VA counseling. I was denied a state counselor because I got insurance through the VA, which states that they cover that.

I'm not trying to give a sob story - I got through my situation just fine. My life is on track and I'm handling everything I have to handle. I was just amazed at how quickly the military drops you after you get out. There's very little support from the military and virtually none from the civilian sector. You basically start over from scratch, oftentimes with your military background not even helping all that much.

[stillbarbi]

03:54 PM on 08/25/2010

The best and least expensive suicide prevention plan is to get ALL of our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan for good. War is hell and the threat of multiple deployments is constantly on their minds. They can't come home from a tour of duty in a war zone, and know that it's behind them, because it's not. Never have our troops been subjected to so many extensions of tours and multiple deployments. It's a disgrace, especially since neither country they are dying or being maimed in is a threat to the security of the US.

It's about politics, war profiteering, and oil. No one should be expected to die for any of those reasons.

[Sean 6399]

01:31 PM on 08/25/2010

How dare these selfish suiciders deprive the nation of all those future taxes. Who do they think they are?

[lonngfello]

01:29 PM on 08/25/2010

These soldiers are casualties of war. Right or wrong the decisions of our policy makers created this reality. Having been in and out of combat over multiple tours, the fact they may not have died on the field is inconsequencial, they are casualties of the battle none the less, and deserve recognition as such.

[american-dolt]

12:49 PM on 08/25/2010

It is very sad not only to hear about the record number of suicides but also the how few Americans know about them...or perhaps care.

[Ishmael1]

06:55 AM on 08/25/2010

My advice to soldiers contemplating suicide is as follows:

Don't Do it. Just wait unitl your command holds one of those "Spiritual Fitness Concerts" of evangelicals. Attend that concert. Then, the following Monday Morning, promptly report to the Chaplain's Office and apply for a Conscientious Objector Discharge. When they ask you WHY, merely tell them,

"Well, I was FORCED to attend one of these Christian Evangelical concerts on base, even though I didn't WANT to. But, you know, once I was there, I was overcome by the message of the Good Book and decided to dedicate the rest of my life to Christ's Teachings. As a result of that decision, I haveswore a solemn oath before God that I will no longer take part in Killing or War for ANY reason or in ANY capacity whatsoever. So, can I have my Discharge now?"

If they try to counter or argue against your decision, merely refer them to the General and to the Sixth Commandment. If they counter that War is NOT Murder, merely reply that ALL killing of human beings is murder. They just CALL it War to disguise the Murder they do.

[eljefefx]

07:52 PM on 08/25/2010

You could, I imagine, be more of a troll but I'm not quite sure how you would go about it.

[Ishmael1]

01:06 AM on 08/26/2010

Actually, I'm a Vietnam Vet and helped counsel some of my friends about CO discharges when I was in. That was a time when quite a lot of people were trying to get out of the service. So let's Look at the facts.

1.Service member suicides are through the roof due to 2 ongoing wars/occupations and multiple deployments to those wars by servicemembers.

2. As documented here and in many other news sites, Christian Evengelicals are openly infiltrating the services and evangelizing for THEIR own ends.

My basic idea is for service members to USE those Evangelicals for THEIR own ends. If my choices as a servicemember are either deployment to a War Zone or ending my life and some right-wing Bible-thumper is going to come along and offer me a Lead-Pipe Cinch way to get out alive, I'm going to grab it like a trout on a helgramite. So, consider what would happen to those suicide-contemplating servicemembers who TRY my idea. At the very least, they can't deploy while their CO status is investigated. And WHO are they going to have to ask? The very Evangelicals and the CO's who scheduled the events. And what can they answer? No, the 6th commandment does not forbid WAR? What IS War but Murder on a grand scale?

[Macready]

05:36 AM on 08/25/2010

there is no doubt our servicemen need help . . and they deserve to get the best help available . . .but when does our government take responsibility for deluding these guys that they are fighting for something . . . . the saddest thing is that those who fought in Iraq fought for nothing other than neo con greed . . . and Afghanistan is the same . . . our millitary was fighting civilians in Iraq . . civilians are still being killed in Afghanistan . . . It must be horrible to discover that what you fought for was an empty shell . . . war is horrific and what these soldiers must have seen and been forced to do must have been nightmarish to the enth degree . . . they need help and we also have to get our government realise that war is not the answer . . there must be a better way . . . than war . . .

[WTFbush]

01:18 AM on 08/25/2010

if you know of a vet and they are having problems, get them to a vet center. there are people there who will understand and will help. please, don't wait. they may not have a tomorrow.

[single malt]

08:47 PM on 08/24/2010

The problem is 1/4 people in this world will suffer from some sort of mental illness and 3/4 of the world will make them feel bad for it. If you are depressed or suffer from PTSD the last thing you likely want to do is let other people know. They never treat you the same after, not even close. So what happens is you isolate yourself from the world. This causes you not to get the hugs and kisses you need to recover. Sounds funny I know but suicide is reduces by 50% with just a conversation... can you imagine how much you could reduce it with a hug?

Even worse is how everyone thinks they are a doctor. "You don't need those pills" "don't they make a light for that" "It is just in your head, you need to think happy thoughts" "Let Jesus heal you" The messed up thing is most times you are not even asking for answer cause there are none for what these young men were exposed to. All you want is to cry and have it be ok. Just in this world is not ok to cry and be broken. You have to be perfect all the time or we will jump all over you.. and so you don't get help.. you try to deal on your own but when you close your eyes the demons come a knocking.. all you want is peace.. boom. ur dead.

[WTFbush]

01:08 AM on 08/25/2010

yup. you nailed it. One other thing that is happening is that the military is treating active duty people with anti-depresants. when they return they fill out a questionaire asking them if they have had suicidal thoughts, depression, etc. of course they answer no. then they get out of the service and because the symptoms were masked by anti depressants, they can't get treated at the va or file a claim for disability

people must remember that ptsd results from 'normal reactions' to very 'abnormal situations'. the two biggest issues that plague the returning soldiers are guilt and shame. But comparing the social norms and values here to there is grossly unfair and unrealistic. there is no NORMAL in combat. If talking to a soldier doesn't work, just listen and don't judge.

[Ascoli]

08:32 PM on 08/24/2010

Why do they keep joining and volunteering.
Don't they see the bloody writing on the wall.
Don't they see the blood.
Don't join the killing.............including yourself.

[eljefefx]

09:37 PM on 08/24/2010

Honor and Duty. Two things you may or may not have read about.

[WTFbush]

01:11 AM on 08/25/2010

honor, duty and a poor man's draft.
don't you see the prison just at the end of the road.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

08:26 PM on 08/24/2010

Allow me to predict the future: Democrats will propose a Suicide Prevention Office and the Republicans will block it and the media, mainstream and otherwise, will give the Republicans a pass and not even mention that they are blocking something as important as this, for our troops.

It's a cycle that makes me sick. The media makes me sick. Republicans make me sick.