More than 20 SD vets committed suicide this year
Young veterans account for nearly half of crisis calls
Written by
Jeanette Steele
Aug. 30, 2012
More than 20 San Diego-area veterans have committed suicide this fiscal year, according to numbers released by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical system in San Diego.
A total 126 local veterans attempted to take their own lives, and 22 succeeded, the VA said. The facility released the data for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 as part of an effort to highlight its suicide prevention program during National Suicide Prevention Week, Sept. 9 to 15.
The San Diego region is home to the largest concentration of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in the nation, roughly 30,000, and those former troops are showing up in the suicide statistics to a greater degree.
Almost half of crisis calls received by the VA’s suicide prevention program are people who have served since Sept. 11, 2001, officials said.
“When we began in 2007, all the calls were from older veterans,” said Paula Saltz, suicide prevention coordinator for the San Diego VA.
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