Suicide Awareness: Lost on a road to No Place Good

How do we know suicide awareness does not work?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
July 21, 2019

"It is time for us "others" to step up and begin to communicate a much different message to veterans."

We know suicide awareness does not work because of the results. Much like the report out of Alabama with higher veteran suicide numbers "awareness" raising began. They did not need to become aware they were killing themselves. They needed to be made aware of how to stay alive.

Specialist Ricardo Acosta was one of them. He went to the VA for help but did not receive all the help he needed.

Ricardo was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. He attended therapy sessions through the Veterans Affairs Administration and was prescribed medication.

“What most definitely did not help was their answer to soldiers returning with PTSD is to throw them on a myriad of drugs. And that is a downward spiral," his mother stated.

Sixteen days before his 29 birthday, Ricardo took his own life.

“The demons fought too hard and he fought so hard for many years and he lost," Lynn said. It left Ricardo’s family, including his mother and three younger sisters torn. 

“We’ll never be the same. There’s a missing piece.”

Military.com posted an article on military suicides that uses the data from 2017. Not sure why, other than the report for 2018 should have been released long before this. Still no clue where that report is.

The headline of the article is New Military Suicide Report May Revive Debate Over Gun Restrictions
but it was not the new report researchers have been looking for.

It has been reported that the number of suicides within the military have gone up for all branches. Active duty suicides for soldiers went up 20% for 2018.

The report from 2017 shows that suicide awareness has not worked, and there is every indication from what we know about 2018, the results are backwards. Reminder, these results are more current than from the VA.

Occurrence of Non-Fatal Suicide Attempts

Over the course of CY 2017, 1,397 non-fatal suicide attempts were identified. The associated DoDSER forms provided data on suicide attempts for 1,342 unique individuals since more than one attempt per individual could have occurred.

The reports from the VA on suicides have been years behind the deaths, limited data submitted by some states and leave out too many facts. Among them, are the number of veterans without honorable discharges, because none of them are counted. States like California and Illinois were not in the reports because they passed legislation in 2017 to include military service on death certificates. 

National Guard and Reservists are not counted unless they were deployed into combat. Responding to natural disasters and humanitarian missions do not "qualify" them as veteran.

Vermont is another state with a high veteran suicide rate. Josh Pallotta was in the National Guard and was deployed.

Soon, his mother said, Josh lost motivation and purpose in life. In September 2014, he ended his life. He was 25.

Valerie had not spoken with her son during the nine months before he took his own life. She took a tough love approach, hoping Josh would buck up. But that backfired on her, and she has had to live with a terrible sense of guilt, she said.

What’s worse, she said, time doesn’t heal.

His Mom, Valerie, is left with all that because no one told her how to help her son heal. How is it that keeps getting missed in all of this reporting on veterans killing themselves?

We had the same issues when all other generations came home. What we also had was a strong desire to change the conversation from whispering about suicides into screaming about healing.

Point Man International Ministries started in 1984 when a Seattle Police Officer was tired of arresting other veterans. His mission was to show them the way to taking back control of their lives from PTSD and being defined as saved survivors.

The approach was simple, basic and powerful. To heal veterans, Bill knew it required healing the spirit, soul and body instead of being left out by mental health providers.

Lives were changed! Now I read all these reports and it rips me up inside knowing how many lives have been saved, families empowered to fight this battle and change the outcome. 

We will never save their lives by talking about them choosing to die after they risked their lives for the sake of others.

The Department of Veterans Affairs campaign "Be There" will do little good unless those who are supposed to be there know how to help. Given the results it is clear far too many are doing whatever they want to do, and end up doing more harm than good.

I feel like a little kid on a long family trip..."are we there yet" pops into my brain as I wonder why so many of us are "there" while far too many are still finding themselves lost on a road to No Place Good.

Bravo Company battles to save their brothers after war

Military Unit, Ravaged by War, Regroups Back Home to Survive the Peace

The Wall Street Journal
By Ben Kesling
July 14, 2019

“Derek, Grant, Timmy—all those guys died at their own hands,” said Sgt. 1st Class Robert Musil, listing close friends from Bravo Company and other units he served in who had killed themselves. “All those men were warriors. If they can do it, what’s stopping me?”

Veterans at the reunion talk about their experiences since returning from deployment to Afghanistan. PHOTO: TRAVIS DOVE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Suicides drive Bravo Company veterans to test whether reuniting will help overcome lingering effects of battle

Nearly a year ago, the combat-hardened paratroopers of Bravo Company realized things were getting too dangerous. They weren’t working as a team. Too many men were dying. Nobody seemed to know how to stop the bloodletting.

And that was a decade after they got home from war.

During an 11-month tour of Afghanistan’s notorious Arghandab Valley, three soldiers from Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment were killed in action and a dozen more lost at least one leg or arm. In the 10 years since they returned to the U.S., two B Company soldiers—isolated from their buddies, struggling with their demons—have killed themselves, more than a dozen have tried and others admit they have considered it.

“I didn’t think I deserved to get help,” Jason Horton confessed to the group over a microphone in a conference room. It’s hard to find help in a system as large as the VA, he said. He found it helpful to talk one-on-one with someone who experienced the same trauma he did. “It’s a big sea, and it’s hard to swim in that sea,” he said.
read it here

You learned how to fight...now learn how to live! #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

Active duty member of military found dead

Frederick police: Man found outside garage ruled a suicide

Frederick News Post
By Jeremy Arias
Jun 24, 2019

Detectives later used video surveillance to determine that the man fell from the third floor of the garage and his death was ruled a suicide, Alcorn said. The man was described only as 37 years old and an active-duty member of the U.S. military.

A man who died Monday after police found him injured on Sunday outside a garage in downtown Frederick was eventually ruled a suicide, according a police supervisor.

The man was discovered by a passer-by shortly before 9 a.m. Sunday just outside the Carroll Creek parking deck, according to Sgt. Andrew Alcorn, supervisor of the Frederick Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division. The man was still alive and was taken to a hospital, where he was stabilized long enough for his family members to arrive from out of state, Alcorn said.
read it here

Soldiers Died by Suicide at Arizona-Mexico Border

Official: Soldiers Died by Suicide at Arizona-Mexico Border

The Associated Press
28 Jun 2019

Officials say 20-year-old Pfc. Steven Hodges of Menifee, California, died June 1 near Nogales, and 21-year-old Pfc. Kevin Christian of Haslet, Texas, died Sunday in Ajo, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Nogales.

TUCSON, Ariz. — A medical examiner says two soldiers helping secure the Mexico border in Arizona died by suicide.

Pima County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Greg Hess said Thursday the soldiers died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds.
read more here

Vice Admiral's death ruled suicide

Navy probe rules vice admiral’s death a suicide

By: Geoff Ziezulewicz
June 11, 2019

The three-star admiral found dead in his home last year in Bahrain took his own life, according to a copy of the service’s preliminary inquiry into his death.

Vice Adm. Scott A. Stearney, then the commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, was found dead in his Bahrain home in December. (Marine Corps)

The body of Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, the 58-year-old commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, was found on the afternoon of Dec. 1 in his residence in Janabiya, according to the three-page preliminary inquiry obtained by Navy Times.

The heavily redacted document cites a Naval Criminal Investigative Service probe and concludes that a “timeline of events and witness statements” revealed “his intent to commit suicide.”

“No information uncovered during the subsequent NCIS investigation, including multiple interviews and forensic analysis of VADM Stearney’s electronic devices, contradicted this finding.”

The inquiry determined that Stearney’s death occurred in the line of duty and was not due to his own misconduct.
read more here

Dog taught veteran to heal PTSD

At $20,000 a pup, service dogs bark Philly military veterans back to life

Philadephia Inquirer
by Erin Arvedlund
June 5, 2019

After he considered suicide, Curtis Thompson finally admitted that he might need help.

“I stereotyped myself. I wasn’t an old man, like in Vietnam and World War II,” says Army vet Thompson, 41, who lives in Burlington Township.

JAMES BLOCKER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Deployed to Kosovo in 1999 and three times to Iraq, Thompson was discharged honorably in 2006. He got divorced from his first wife, couch surfed, and endured panic attacks, nightmares and brief homelessness.

By 2013, he reconnected with a high school sweetheart (they have since married). She insisted he seek treatment at VA medical centers in Philadelphia and Marlton, N.J., where he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and severe PTSD from his time in combat and exposure to a roadside bomb.

“My doctor said a service dog would really help, but I couldn’t afford to pay $20,000” — the going price for a fully-trained service animal that is attuned to veterans and their health issues.
read more here

DOD tells troops to seek help for PTSD to prevent suicides?

DOD Officials Urge Troops to Seek Mental Health Help Without Fear

Department of Defense
BY C. TODD LOPEZ
May 28, 2019

''It really speaks to ... interaction with those line commanders,'' Colston said. ''That's vitally important, and really getting a pulse of the unit.''

Soldiers from Fort Carson, Colo. watch troop movements during Exercise Green Flag West 13-2 at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., Nov. 7, 2012.

In 2018, more than 320 active duty service members committed suicide. Among reserve component service members, 144 did the same. One lawmaker called it ''an epidemic.''

One problem that may contribute to suicide numbers is a reticence to seek assistance from mental health providers due to fears that such help may damage careers, especially when it comes to security clearances. But that fear is unfounded, one defense leader told lawmakers May 21.

''We absolutely need to get the word out that it's almost impossible to lose your security clearance from endorsing a mental health history on your SF-86 question 21,'' said Navy Capt. (Dr.) Mike Colston, the Defense Department's director of mental health policy and oversight. ''We really have data — [this has happened to] a couple dozen out of nearly 10 million security clearances,'' Colston said. ''So when we look at the process of 'Let's get down to the data,' are we going to kick you out for having a mental health condition? Probably not.''

Elizabeth P. Van Winkle, executive director of DOD's Office of Force Resiliency, told lawmakers during the joint hearing of the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on military personnel and the House Veterans Affairs Committee's health subcommittee that solving suicide is a shared challenge in both the military and civilian societies.
read more here

As of the 3rd quarter of 2018, according to the DOD, there were 231 suicides among "active" and 144 among reserves. The numbers do not add up. So far, the report for all of 2018 has not been found, but I will keep looking because the DOD is mandated by Congress to provide the reports. Wonder if they ever figured out what we knew back in 2009? Safe bet they did not since they kept doing it.

PTSD Awareness Month begins today...again

Are they out of their minds on suicide awareness?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 1, 2019

Today begins PTSD Awareness Month. The press will not remind you of the fact that this is not the first year, or the second, or the third.

S.Res.215 — 114th Congress (2015-2016)A resolution designating the month of June 2015 as "National Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month" and June 27, 2015, as "National Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day".Sponsor: Sen. Heitkamp, Heidi [D-ND] (Introduced 06/25/2015) Cosponsors: (22)Latest Action: Senate - 06/25/2015 Submitted in the Senate, considered, and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S4657; text as passed Senate: CR S4654) (All Actions)

When Secretary of the VA Robert Wilkie issued a statement "We are not even at the Sputnik stage in this country when it comes to getting our arms around mental health issues." as an advocate and educator, it made me want to drink and it is not even 8:00 am!

In 1982, I was sitting in a library with a dictionary and a stack of clinical books, all written on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Vietnam veterans. Yes, experts were writing on it for years, but few bothered to learn much from them. That is apparent with the results we are seeing today.

By 1978 the DAV released this to help veterans know they are not alone and there was a reason for everything they were going through. 

I have it hanging on my wall as a constant reminder of how long our veterans have been suffering instead of healing because no one told them they could have a better life.

All the years since then have been wasted and we just settle for what we are being told because the press decided to not do their jobs. They get assigned to report on something and do it without any investigation of their own to know if what they are being told is true or not.

If we are going to change the outcome, it is time for brutal honesty. Otherwise, suicides will continue because too many are unqualified to do more than make it worse. A good intention is not good preparation.

Growing up in a military family, qualified me to be an oddball in my own family. Both of my brothers were born while my Dad was in the Army. He retired before I came along. It also made me an oddball among my friends. None of their parents served.

Surviving death 10 times qualified me to know what trauma does to a person. It also qualified me to know what prevention does to stop the onset of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I do not have PTSD because of how my family dealt with everything...they listened until I was done needing to talk. That qualified me to know the value of crisis intervention. Later in life I became certified in it as a Chaplain.

Living with PTSD in my husband qualified me to be able to offer support to others. It did not qualify me to attempt to treat anyone else. That came with 2 years of research in the library with clinical books and a dictionary, so I could understand what the heck I was reading. It came from talking to a lot of veterans less than listening to them. While I have been writing about PTSD since 1984, I continue to research it so that I can help more. 37 years later, all that makes me an expert enough to educate, support and change the conversation.

With first responders, I was not qualified to work with them until I did two years worth of training as a Chaplain with the IFOC and with DEEP, Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness...plus a lot of other training.

None of that qualified me to be able diagnose or treat anyone beyond educating them and offering the facts they need to know. I cannot give or advise on medications. I cannot offer help with filing VA claims. All I can do is advise them on how to get the help they need from people qualified to give it.

The trouble we are seeing is the direct result of unqualified people doing something they did not take seriously enough to become qualified to do it. It is also the result of members of Congress more interested in getting their name on a bill than they are in doing something that will not be a repeat of what already failed. It is almost as if they think their name tied to a failure is not a hindrance but they do not know what conversations we have in the veterans community. 

Every time we read about another suicide, we bring up all the money and years of repeated failures by both parties in Washington.

Raising awareness suicides are happening is not the same thing as doing anything to prevent them from happening. Awareness is not prevention!

When raising PTSD Awareness, how about actually making them aware that they can heal, beginning with making them aware of what PTSD is in the first place! 

It makes my blood boil when I read about another stunt with the people in charge using "22 a day" years after the VA report came out and put the known number at "20" proving they could not even pay attention beyond what they originally wanted to know. Apparently they did not want to know how to change the outcome.

Was it too much work for them to learn? Would it take too much time away from their fundraising goals that became their own financial means of support as "their job" instead of their vocation? Would it take time from contacting reporters to make sure they covered their "efforts" and made them famous? (yes, we know they do that all the time too)

So, if you really want to make a difference, then take this as seriously as it should be...a matter of life or death.

This is one more thing the press will not remind you of. Choice Act for veterans was introduced by Senator John McCain and signed by President Obama.

 S.2424 — 113th Congress (2013-2014)Veterans Choice Act of 2014Sponsor: Sen. McCain, John [R-AZ] (Introduced 06/03/2014) Cosponsors: (28)Committees: Senate - Veterans' AffairsLatest Action: Senate - 06/03/2014 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. (All Actions)Notes: For further action, see H.R.3230, which became Public Law 113-146 on 8/7/2014.

Top Marine changing the PTSD conversation after 77 suicides and 354 attempted it

Top Marine Makes Plea to End Suicide, Says 'Zero Shame' in Admitting Problem

Military.com
By Gina Harkins
24 May 2019

"We are all 'broken' in our own way -- and we all need help at times," Neller said. "It is critical we understand and respect that."

The Marine Corps insignia is visible behind Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller as he takes questions from reporters at the unveiling of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaign engravings on the USMC War Memorial (Iwo Jima), Nov. 21, 2017, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

"Marines are in a fight to save their fellow comrades, and they must approach that fight with the same intensity they apply to other battles," he added. In the nearly four years Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has led the Marine Corps, the service has lost a rifle company-worth of Marines to suicide, and he says it's time to have a frank conversation about what's causing that.

Active-duty suicide rates in the Navy and Marine Corps reached a 10-year high last year. Seventy-seven active-duty and Reserve Marines died by suicide in 2018, and another 354 attempted it.

It's clear that Marines are struggling, Neller wrote in a letter to the force this week, and it's time to be honest about stress and trauma causing them mental stress.

"Let me be clear up front, there is zero shame in admitting one's struggles in life -- trauma, shame, guilt or uncertainty about the future -- and asking for help," he said in a two-page letter about mental illness addressed to Marines, sailors and their families.

Neller accompanied the letter with a raw video posted to social media in which he tells Marines that life is tough, just as being a Marine is tough. "Nobody said this was going to be easy, but you can deal with this. It has to be dealt with."

"Let us help," Neller added. "... If you can't do something, then OK fine. Your buddy's there to do it. And if your buddy can't help you, then we'll take you to a higher echelon of care."

"There's nothing wrong with that," he adds.
read more here

Non-profits doing the work struggle to reach veterans in need

Nonprofits Struggle to Reach At-Risk Veterans Who Shun VA Services

Military.com
By Richard Sisk
26 May 2019

In addition to the VA and other government agencies, there are traditional veterans service organizations and more than 40,000 support groups registered as nonprofits with the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.

Participants of the 2019 377th Security Forces Squadron Suicide Awareness Ruck March stand in formation at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, March 29, 2019. The ruck march was created to support The Brave Badge Initiative Facebook page. The Facebook page was created due to the increased rates in suicide in the security forces career field in the past year and aims to give Defenders another place to go to when they are struggling with mental health issues. (Austin J. Prisbrey/U.S. Air Force)

NEW YORK CITY -- From a warren of desks in a downtown Manhattan office building, the small team of social workers and counselors takes calls from veterans who either won't go to the Department of Veterans Affairs or are bewildered on where to turn for help.

This is the Rapid Response Referral Program of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an effort to combat what Navy Reserve Cmdr. Jeremy Butler, IAVA's chief executive officer, calls the "navigation" problem for veterans trying to find the right fit in a vast and disjointed support system.

"It's an Impossible task, knowing everything that's out there" among the various groups offering help, and "each group seems to exist in its own bubble." Army Staff Sgt. Dennis Higgins
read more here

More lame reporting on military suicides

Military suicides are up but reporters do not seem to take it seriously enough to ask questions?

Ever think that you are about to read a very worthy article because of the title...and then find out you just wasted your time? Damn, I could have been playing candy crush instead.

Yes, dear reader, I am about to take off on one of those rants that I cannot avoid.

This is the headline that I though would really mean some great reporting.

"Gut wrenching replies to a US Army tweet portray the gravity of veteran suicide rates"

So much for a great headline. It was all a bunch of the same old reporting done with what the VA says and how they are taking all of this seriously...even though the report was supposed to be about the Army. 

Even more BS trying to make it seem as if no one had ever done anything on this, going all the way back to Bush 41 when he signed the Joshua Omving Suicide Prevention Act.

OK, so what we have here is a failure to communicate facts! If you read this site, you'll be able to spot what they should have been asking instead of this!

Business Insider
Sarah Gray
May 25, 2019

"How has serving impacted you?" — that was a question put forth by the US Army's Twitter account.

Scott Nelson/Getty Images

The tweet was threaded below another with a video of Pfc. Nathan Spencer, a scout with the Army's First Infantry Division explaining how the Army has "influenced his life" in a positive way.

The replies below the question, however, are were varied: some acknowledge life-long friendships, while others share gutting stories of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), difficulties with the Veterans Administration, or loved ones they lost to suicide.

"Given me memories of twelve Soldiers who chose suicide, three killed in preventable rollovers, another dozen sexually assaulted, and lots of people and families broken by immoral acts in a war that won't end," Bill Cork, whose Twitter bio describes him as "chaplain (former Army)," said in a tweeted response to the Army. And he was not alone in documenting veteran suicides. read more here

Texans closer to medical pot...but not veterans with PTSD?

Former Dallas Cowboy Jay Novacek, Wife Advocate For Medical Marijuana Law: ‘We Want To Save Our Son’s Life’

CBS DFW
By Andrea Lucia
May 23, 2019

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – More than one million Texans could be eligible to access medical marijuana through the Texas Compassionate Use program, after state senators unanimously approved a bill expanding the list of qualifying conditions on Wednesday.

Jay and Amy Novacek (CBS 11)

The bill is more narrow than one passed by the House earlier this month, but would allow patients with medical seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, spasticity, terminal cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, autism and ALS to obtain medical cannabis with up to .5% THC from a state-licensed dispensary.

“We’re just like everybody there, desperate. We want to save our son’s life,” said Amy Novacek.

She and her husband, former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jay Novacek, never expected they would be advocating for anything related to marijuana.

“Everybody I grew up with.. there was no drinking, no drugs. I was naïve to all that in small town Nebraska,” said Jay Novacek.

Joshua Raines, an Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient, has plead with lawmakers for years to extend medical marijuana access to veterans suffering from PTSD.

“I’ve lost more friends to suicide than I have to combat,” he said.
read more here

Congress major malfunction on suicide prevention

Congress needs to ask DOD and VA what their major malfunction is

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 21, 2019

Right now there is a hearing going on with congress on "Military and Veteran Suicide" but they are still wondering why they have not reduced them in either side of service...

Scheduled from May 21 2019 2:00 PM EDT to May 21 2019 5:00 PM EDT Elizabeth P. Van Winkle, executive director of the Office of Force Resiliency for the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and Navy Capt. (Dr.) Mike Colston., director for mental health programs in DOD’s Health Services Policy and Oversight Office, testify at a joint hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on military personnel and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s health subcommittee titled, “Military and Veteran Suicide: Understanding the Problem and Preparing for the Future,” May 21, 2019.
go here

Resiliency is the major part of the problem, but the DOD has not figured it out yet. 

DOD suicide event report should have been released last month for 2018, but it looks like they are doing it just yearly now. Why?

These reports are the most current numbers showing the growing need to change what is being done, or expand on what is working. So far, what works has not replaced what failed.

Consider that these men and women, valued life so much, they were willing to die for the sake of others. 

They endured hardships and more misery than most humans will ever know for a cause that was greater than their own comforts.

They were willing to leave their families and friends for whatever time they were needed to be gone, again, for the sake of others.

So how is it that anyone could find it acceptable to allow any of these men and women to devalue their own lives and seek an end to the same life who gave so much, survived so much, only to fall by their own hands?

Considering the DOD has been feeding the stigma of PTSD with their "resilience" and making it sound as if there is a weakness in them instead of what they needed to know. They are survivors and while still human. When civilians get PTSD, it can happen after just one time. For them, it is the one time too many that causes PTSD in those who serve the rest of us.

Dr. Franklin got it wrong on the number when she said "20" a day over the last few years. According to the VA it has been that number since 1999 when there were over 5 million more veterans alive at the time. Yes, she got that wrong and here are the charts from the VA. Notice the percentage of suicides going up.

"The VA has tripled mental health care spending since 2005 to a record $8.6 billion in fiscal year 2019" and this is the result.

This is from the report where so many groups just decided that all they had to do was repeat a number to "raise awareness" it was happening but never thought it would be necessary to do anything else...like research what to do to get a basic understanding.

Dr. Van Winkle ran down a long list of what they are doing...but seems to have missed the point that none of it is new, while the number of active duty suicides has gone up. Check the suicide reports that have been released by the DOD

Capt. Colston said that over 40% had not been deployed but did not mention how that proves that if the "prevention" efforts were not good enough to save those lives, it was very unlikely it would save any of those who had been deployed.  Top that off with those who had been deployed multiple times and you can see how that should have been known as a major malfunction in their thinking.

Capt. Colston did not know why suicides went up...but at least he is an honest man.

Dr. Neal Dunn asked about reporting on veterans committing suicide, as if reporting on them is any worse than running around the country raising money to raise "awareness" they are happening. Seems it would be a good place to start shutting those groups down and ending the stunts that rob donors of money...and veterans of hope.


It was announced there was a suicide at a VA campus over the weekend and he had been confused because he had a "other than honorable discharge." (Looking for that information now.)

Judging by how few members of the House Armed Services Committee and Veterans Affairs Committee, maybe that explains how nothing has changed to help these veterans hear the one thing they needed to hear all along...they could heal!

Mom of "Lone Soldier" "No other soldier should come back in a casket

MOTHER OF MICA LEVIT, WHO TOOK HER OWN LIFE, CALLS FOR MORE LONE SOLDIER SUPPORT

Jerusalem Post Israel News
BY ANNA AHRONHEIM
MAY 20, 2019

But the annual State Comptroller report has found major deficiencies in how the military deals with lone soldiers whose needs the IDF has not fully examined.

"No other soldier should come back in a casket."

When Michaela (Mica) Levit joined the Israeli military in November of 2017, her parents knew she was going to be a fighter, but last week she was found dead outside her base in central Israel.

“We knew she wasn’t going to go anywhere else in the army,” her mother Orit Levit told The Jerusalem Post. “She told us she wasn’t going to Israel to be a secretary, she wanted to be a fighter. We knew that if she was going, she wouldn’t do anything else.”

Levit described her daughter as “full of life, positive and happy,” as someone who was always encouraging and supporting her friends in times of need and the life of the party and “glue of the group” during the happier moments.

“She loved everyone, she never had bad word to say... She was so good to her family, never wanted us to worry, to disappoint us. She was an angel.”

What happened “wasn’t anything we expected of her,” Orit said.

“I never felt she was isolated in Israel, she had the support of extended family. She had so many invitations and she told me 'Mum, sometimes I feel bad that I want to stay home on the weekends.’”

And it wasn’t only family, Orit said. “A lot of her friends are sending condolences and [saying] that their hearts are broken and that they will never meet another person like her... She had a community.”

Orit’s middle child, Mica, moved to Israel in June 2017 and settled at Kibbutz Kinneret, where she took ulpan classes before joining the IDF through the Garin Tzabar program in November, drafting into the mixed Caracal combat battalion. She had just moved to an apartment with other lone soldiers in Hadera and was going through the army’s team leader training course (Course Makim) when she took her life.
read more here

This is what a "Lone Soldier" is

LONE SOLDIERSA “lone soldier” is a soldier in the IDF with no family in Israel to support him or her: a new immigrant, a volunteer from abroad, an orphan or an individual from a broken home.

Every day tens of thousands of soldiers are defending the State of Israel and its citizens. These soldiers regularly spend weekends and holidays at home where their parents provide for all of their needs: food, laundry, and even a hug. Challenges for a lone soldier arise when he or she leaves base. While Israeli-born lone soldiers have their families to return home to, lone soldiers are left to fend for themselves while on leave from the army. This can be once a month, or every weekend, depending on where they serve and what part of training they are in. For more than 7,000 lone soldiers, there is no immediate family in Israel to support them. Though highly motivated and proud to serve, when on leave, many of them struggle with basic needs that a family would solve.

Family searching for answers after US-born IDF lone soldier dies by suicide

 

Veteran lost best friend to suicide, took back his own life

PTSD: 'My best friend's death gave me back my life'

BBC 
Ben Bryant
14 May 2019


Why do the rates of post traumatic stress disorder appear to be rising in veterans?

“John Paul Finnigan’s death gave me life. Something changed in me from that day. I put the drugs down, I went into treatment and got healthy, and it was all down to John Paul’s death. He gave me life.”  Lee Harding

Warning: some upsetting content

"No. I’m not really going to go into that."

Lee Harding cups the side of his face with his palm and paws it softly. His other arm is folded across his chest. He is staring at the wall. His fingers brush a tattoo of two teardrops on his cheek.

"I can’t talk about that," he says quietly, without looking at me.

Lee’s home is unfinished. There are fillers and paints and building materials scattered around the rooms. The lounge has an easy chair and a sofa. There is no TV, there are no pictures and the walls need painting. Lee acknowledges all this with a shrug when I arrive, explaining that some kids had trashed the place before he moved in, and he’s been rebuilding it. It is a new beginning for the house in Merseyside.

It’s a new beginning for Lee too. He has been piecing his life back together over the last year, after he found himself caught in a spiral of drug use, which he says was an attempt to escape the trauma of what he witnessed in combat. Shortly after he returned from Iraq, Lee was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

As a soldier, he served on the front line from 2005 to 2008 with 1st Battalion Royal Green Jackets, which later amalgamated with four other regiments to form 2nd Battalion, The Rifles. Recently, he has noticed that many of the people he was deployed to Iraq with have been struggling.

Several are in treatment for drug and alcohol dependency. And two members of his regiment – Kevin Williams, 29 and John Paul Finnigan, 34 – killed themselves last year, the latter one of Lee’s best friends. A third, Kevin Holt, 30, also died after a lengthy battle with PTSD.
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Useless suicide awareness miss information but make millions?

The insanity of sharing defeat instead of defiance

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 14, 2019

"We just want to make everyone aware of the number" is what one of the organizers had to say about raising funds for Mission 22.

As nauseating as that sounds to us, what makes it worse is, it is actually the truth behind all of the awareness groups running around the country, pulling stunts and getting publicity for lying.

This news coverage just happened but the latest suicide report from the VA had the known number at "20" a day. The following report has the VA saying that 22 a day number is tied to PTSD and TBI, without mentioning that there are a lot of other reasons for what is happening. Then again, they have no clue what to do about any of it.

That is what they are doing when they keep saying stupid stuff like their goal is to make people aware of a number instead of making people aware of how they can help change the outcome.

I have been in a lot of debates over this. When you ask them what their purpose is, they say it is to raise awareness, not change the outcome. When you ask who it is directed toward, they say the people of this country. When you tell them that civilians have their own problem with suicides increasing, they change the story. They then claim it is letting veterans know they are killing themselves. Problem with that is, they already know.They do not know they can heal.

So what the hell is this all about? It is insanity to the max! 

If you are a veteran suffering instead of healing, know that if you #BreakTheSilence you can #TakeBackYourLife and defy death again! You survived what caused PTSD in the first place and can do a hell of a lot better than settling for being reminded of how many of your buddies were not helped by hearing other veteran killed themselves.

*******

Area events to benefit Mission 22 for veterans

Herald Banner
By Brad Kellar | Herald-Banner Staff
May 14, 2019

“Everything is going to Mission 22. We just wanted to make everyone aware of the number.” Franchesca Knight

Jeremy Matherly’s 2014 Mustang, Warfighter, is expected to be one of the entries at a May 18 event in Lone Oak, benefiting the Mission 22 organization Courtesy photo

LONE OAK — As the Memorial Day holiday grows closer, multiple events are being scheduled in the area to raise awareness of how veterans face daily challenges with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has reported that approximately 22 veterans commit suicide each day after their deployment due to PTSD and TBI, which prompted the establishment of Mission 22, a nationwide organization dedicated to assisting veterans and their families cope with the issues.

Charles Barrow of Lone Oak is hosting a car show and 5K run in downtown Lone Oak on May 18 to benefit Mission 22, and said there is a personal reason behind the event.

“I suffer from PTSD,” he said.

Barrow, a veteran of the Seabees, spent 10 years in the U.S. Navy, with stops overseas in Japan, Guam, Cuba and elsewhere. The military life is a family tradition.

“Me, my dad and my uncle were all in Kuwait and Afghanistan at the same time,” Barrow said.
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