WIAT CBS 42 News
Casey Walsh
Published: November 5, 2016
According to the United States Department of Veterans Affair report in 2014, an average of 20 veterans died from suicide each day, of those, 6 of the 20 utilized VA services.
Jamie Baraibar of West Des Moines said it was a shock to everyone when her husband Scott Baraibar died from suicide in March.
“When he passed away, it was a big shock to everyone, all of his friends,” said Baraibar. “Like I said, he was working full time with the [National] Guard, interacting with his supervisors every day.”
Baraibar said she met Scott when he came back from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011 at the manufacturing facility they both worked at. She described her husband Scott as a happy person who served his country, but looking back she noticed difficult situations for him that he didn’t talk much about, such as his lack of sleep. “It was common for him to get maybe two or three hours of sleep a night, it’s like his mind would keep racing.”
Baraibar said she wished she pushed him to talk to someone about the problems. She said it was common for Scott if he was sick or not feeling well to avoid going to the doctors, risking getting discharged from the military.
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This shows a few things most folks forget. Nothing has changed since I was told back in 1993 my husband had to go to VA when at least 30% of Vietnam veterans like him were needing help for PTSD. It also shows that when veterans go to the VA, they less likely to commit suicide. Perfect? Hardly but when you consider members of Congress have been writing bills and signing checks for over a decade, this battle for their lives back home is far from over.
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