Military suicide research shows suicides increased during Wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan

Historic data on military suicide shows no clear link with combat operations

Military Times
Leo Shane
December 13, 2019

The results show an increase in suicide rates among soldiers during the Vietnam War and the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but decreases during the U.S. Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II and the Korean War.

Contrary to public assumptions, increased combat operations do not lead to more military suicides and may actually result in fewer troops engaging in self-harm, according to a new analysis of historic Defense Department data released Friday.

Study authors say their findings provide both a reminder that the motivations behind suicide aren’t singular, simple factors, and an alert to other researchers that more data on the problem is available than they may know about.

The study tracks Army suicide data from the 1840s to today. Dr. Christopher Frueh, a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii and one of the study’s authors, said researchers spent the last four years combing through Army medical records to find the information.

“Before we started, we didn’t know if the data would be there,” he said.

What they found was a trove of reports, including from the Army Surgeon General as far back as 1843 that included accounting of “self-inflicted” deaths in the ranks. By the early 1900s, those suicides were clearly delineated in official service figures, allowing researchers to analyze the death totals across different eras of military operations.
read it here

Tell veterans the truth that can set them free to heal instead of committing suicide

Counting more suicides because they could not count on us

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 5, 2019

I have been thinking a lot about "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" John 8:32 but there has not been much truth telling going on and instead of setting veterans free from their pain by helping them heal, we have succumbed to slogans. How is it that anyone has been so oblivious they actually believe reminding veterans they are killing themselves is a good thing to do?

Seems it would be a lot wiser to tell veterans the truth that can set them free to heal PTSD after service instead of committing suicide.

It isn't as if no one has tried, or pretended to do so, but far too many have failed. The evidence of this is clear. We have we been reading headlines like this for decades. "Lawmakers seek answers on rising military and veterans suicide rates" and then end up reminded of how it has all gotten worse.

The DoD’s 2018 Annual Suicide Report, released in September, found the suicide rate for active-duty U.S. service members in 2018 was 24.8 deaths per 100,000 troops, the highest on record since DoD began tracking suicides closely in 2001.

What that article does not point out is that there was another headline "obtained by the Associated Press" declaring that suicides were at a 26 year high. Well, that number was 99 and the year was 2006 when they committed suicide.

Who offered an apology to Teri and Patrick Caserta after their son Brandon committed suicide? Who gave excuses to other parents after all these years?

Joshua Omvig committed suicide and his parents fought like hell to get the government to do something about saving those who serve. President Bush signed the bill in his name in 2007. No one can explain what happened to all the other bills that followed year after year while the number of those serving, and those who became veterans, continued to climb. No one has been held accountable as more grieving families pleaded with the government to do something that would actually turn things around.

I have been asking why the press was not on suicide watch since 2007, because once they do a report, they seem to lack the ability to retain any of it. It is for sure no editor has assigned the task of putting it all together as if any of it really matters.

More and more groups pop up, get their publicity while apparently never taking any of it seriously enough that they actually manage to change a damn thing. Oh, excuse me. They do manage to change their bank accounts while they fabricate suicide figures and facilitate the ear worm penetrating so deeply veterans cannot fathom possibilities of healing waiting for them.

The press loves to cover feel good stories of the stunts almost as much as they seem to want all the grizzly details of those who took their own lives. What they do not seem too interested in are facts, or reporting anything that will make a difference. How about first telling them the truth about all the lies they have been fed? How about letting them know that they can heal PTSD and their lives can be so much better? How about all the groups claiming to care actually start to do the work necessary to let them know they really do matter and are worthy of the time it takes to change their lives?

That won't happen until we are brave enough to tell the truth and stop settling for BULLSHIT!

Mel B furious another veteran committed suicide

Mel B angry over lack of help to ex-bodyguard who killed self

Gulf Today
December 2, 2019

Ash was in the defence forces for 12 years and apparently suffered mentally after leaving the Marines.

Mel-B-750 Singer Mel B poses for the photographers. File photo/AFP

Singer Mel B has said that more needs to be done in order to help those in the forces dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the death of her former bodyguard, Corporal Ash Nickles (31).

Corporal Ash Nickles, an Afghanistan war veteran, was found dead at his home wearing his ceremonial blues uniform along with his medals on November 22, reports dailystar.co.uk.

It is reported that the former Marine sought help from two different medical centres for his PTSD, but both allegedly turned him down.

And this did not go down well with Mel B.

She said: "It was a damming indictment of lack of help for those suffering from PTSD, who are in such desperate need. I talked a lot to Ash about PTSD. I suffer from it as a result of an emotional and abusive marriage and he suffered from it as a result of what he went through and what he saw in war zones.
read it here

Wounded Times predicted rise in suicides a decade ago...DOD still clueless

In 2009 I wrote "Comprehensive Soldier fitness will make it worse"

General Casey, now hear this, you cannot, repeat, cannot train your brain to prevent PTSD and until you understand this "Because it is scientifically proven, you can build resilience." does not equal the cause of PTSD, you will keep making it worse! Did the rise in suicides and attempted suicides offer you no clue that Battlemind didn't work? Apparently something told you it didn't or you'd still be pushing this. When you have a program in place to "train them to be resilient" beginning with telling them if they do not, it's their fault, what the hell did you and the other brass expect? Did you think they would listen to the rest of what the Battlemind program had to say to them? Are you out of your mind?

With all due respect, because I do believe you care about the men and women you command, this is just one more in a series of mistakes because it seems no one in the Pentagon or the upper rows of the food chain have a clue what causes PTSD.

While adversity does make some stronger, you cannot train them to do it. Life and character does that quite effectively on their own. Some will walk away stronger after traumatic events but one out of three humans will not. Some experts put the rate at one out of five walk away wounded but the best experts I've listened to since 1982 have put it at one out of three.

Do you think that this man could have "trained his brain" as well?

UK:WWII veteran finally diagnosed with PTSD

A D-DAY hero has been told he is suffering a stress related illness picked up in battle — 65 years AFTER he was the first Brit to storm an enemy beach.

WWII vet George McMahon, who was the first soldier on Sword Beach in Normandy, France, had revealed he is still suffering terrifying flashbacks from June 6, 1944.

And Army docs have told the 89-year-old war hero he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) picked up during WWII.

Mr McMahon's family first sought help from docs when the ex-soldier talked vividly about the war in the lead-up to the 65th anniversary of D-Day.

Mr McMahon of Kirk Ella, Hull, was then visited by the Service Personnel and Veterans' Agency — part of the Ministry of Defence — who said he was displaying PTSD symptoms.

The Scotland-born Army vet who served with The King's Regiment Army was awarded the Military Cross for storming two machine-guns.

Back then there were plenty of excuses to use for what happened to veterans but after Vietnam veterans came home and forced the wound to be treated, we ran out of excuses. How can you continue to dismiss what is so obvious? It is the nature of man, what is in their core, their empathy for others that is at the root of PTSD. I've talked to them long enough and enough of them to have understood this over 20 years ago. I also live with one.

I'm sick and tired of reading about what does not work being repeated. In all these years, people like me have already learned from the mistakes we made trying to help our husbands and others. To us, it wasn't a numbers game or a research project. This has meant our lives and the lives of the men we wanted to spend the rest of our lives with. Aside from that General Casey, I've spent countless hours attempting to undo the damage done because the troops are not being told what they need to hear in the first place.

I've held Marines in my arms crying because the military told them they were not strong enough and National Guardsmen told they were not cut out for combat. All of this because the military has been telling them it's their fault they didn't work hard enough to toughen their brains.

How many more suicides are you willing to live with? Has it not gotten thru to you yet that you are losing more men and women after combat than you do during it? This is only part of it because I doubt you have considered how many have committed suicide and tried it after they were discharged. You cannot order them to stop caring! You cannot order them to become callous or oblivious to the suffering of others. Between the members of their own unit to the innocent civilians that do end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, you cannot seriously expect them to just "get over it" and "toughen" their brains. These men and women walk away with their own pain compounded by the pain of others. This is what opens the door to PTSD and until you understand this is what the difference is, you will never get close enough to finding the best treatment for it and they will continue to pay for it.

Ever notice the vast majority of the men and women you command end up carrying out the mission they are given, fighting fiercely and showing great courage even though they are already carrying the wound inside of them? They fulfill their duty despite flashbacks and nightmares draining them because their duty comes first to them. Do you understand how much that takes for them to do that? Yet you think telling them their minds are not tough enough will solve the problem? What kind of a tough mind do you think they needed to have to fight on despite this killing pain inside of them?

I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.

And then I issued the prediction that should have been seen by all the experts as a warning of what was to come.

If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them.

I was right back then, still right now, while the DOD remains clearly wrong...and too many servicemembers remain choosing to die instead of fighting for their own lives.

This is the "headline" they are dealing with now.

U.S. military’s suicide rate for active-duty troops up over the past five years, Pentagon says

But the Pentagon must build better understanding of the effectiveness of its suicide-prevention efforts, she said. That can be done through examining pilot programs and seeing “what is working in the civilian sector and bringing it into the military as a promising practice and to measure the effectiveness.”

Too bad they have been saying the same F***ing thing for a decade!

Sec. of the Army said he is pushing "resilience training" when in fact it has been more responsible for military suicides and enforces the stigma of PTSD. Telling them they can train their brains to be mentally tough ends up telling them they are mentally weak. They won't admit they need help to a buddy that heard the same message. No one is held accountable and I just got off the phone with another Mom after he son committed suicide. woundedtimes.blogspot.com February 5, 2013

186 reported suicide deaths in 2017, including 123 spouses and 63 dependents

Here’s what first-ever data shows about military family suicides

Military Times
By: Karen Jowers  
September 26, 2019

Of the 123 spouses who died by suicide in 2017, 14 percent, or about 17, were active duty, in dual military marriages.

Getty Images/Stock

The prevalence of suicide among military family members is about the same or less than in the civilian population, according to a report from the Defense Department.

It’s the first time data on military family member suicides has ever been released by the Defense Department. This report includes one year of data: 2017, so there’s no basis of comparison for trends within the community.

Data from 2017 is also the most recent available, because the information is partly dependent on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The overall suicide rate among family members was 6.8 per 100,000 population in 2017, which is less than half the rate in the U.S. general population of 14.5 per 100,000. This measurement is the standard comparison used by the government for suicide rates in populations.

The overall military spouse rate of suicide was 11.5 per 100,000; the rate for dependents was 3.8 per 100,000. Adjusting for age and gender, the rates were comparable to or lower than those in the general population, officials said.

According to the report:
There were 186 reported suicide deaths in 2017, including 123 spouses and 63 dependents. The dependents ranged in age from 12 to 23; and almost half of the dependents who died were 18 years or older. Two-thirds of the spouses who died by suicide were female, and 82 percent were under age 40.

Ages 18 to 60 were used in the rate comparison for spouses. When examined by age, officials said, the suicide rates for female military spouses was 9.1 and for male spouses, 29.4 per 100,000 population. For females and males in the general population, the rates were 8.4 and 28.4 per 100,000 population, respectively.

For active duty spouses, the rate is higher: 13.2 per 100,000.

Firearms were used in more than half of the suicide deaths of military spouses and dependents. For female spouses, that trend departs from suicides of females of similar age in the U.S. general population, where poisoning or drug overdose were as prevalent as firearms.
read it here

...and yet, according to the DOD, they have been working very hard to support the families who support their servicemembers! Seriously?

Playing Candy Crush in the lobby of the VA so you can say you showed up for them?

Having a "fun run" because veterans are killing themselves is repulsive!

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 25, 2019

It is heartbreaking when you read about a veteran wanting to do something because he lost buddies he cared about. Noble reasons to want to prevent someone else from committing suicide, dose not mean the endeavor is the right one.

Once again, a veteran lost a buddy after seeing "dark in nature" Facebook posts posts and then a link to Pink Floyd's "Goodbye Cruel World." This suicide was number 7 of his friends. 

What did he decide to do? He decided to host a fundraiser for Mission 22 and have a "fun run" along with a Chinese Silent Auction.

“We just felt like we had to do something, said General Manager Joshua Hawkins of The Firing Pin. “We have never done something like this here. This is our first one and I’m hoping this will turn into something we do every year, and I’m hoping we can raise a lot of money for them.”

The day will feature a 2.2k fun run, with registration starting at 10 a.m. and the run itself an hour later. Food trucks will be available 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. with live music from 1 to 4 p.m.

A chinese and silent auction will take place through 5 p.m. while an Eli Fish Brewing Co. craft beer tent will be available 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Raise a lot of money for them? Seriously? Repeating a false number is not worth a dime or anyone's time!

The question raised in the article of "Why aren’t people more aware of suicide among military personnel and veterans?" proved how all these "awareness" stunts do nothing to prevent suicides.

People all over the country have been making veterans aware of something they knew all too well, how to die. What they did not know was how to heal. They still do not even know they can.

There was a time when I abstained from attacked events like this. I thought if they were trying to make a difference, it was better than nothing. The problem is, that is all they are doing. 

They had no knowledge of what was in the reports they quote but worse, they did had no basic knowledge of what was missing from the data. They did not know the history behind decades of earnest efforts to change the outcome, instead of having "fun" events after the fact.

It produces the same result for veterans in crisis as playing Candy Crush in the lobby of the VA so you can say you showed up for them. You may convince yourself you did something for them, but it was a worthless effort that did nothing for them!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

You can defeat PTSD!

Three sailors on USS George H.W. Bush took their own lives last week

After three USS George H.W. Bush sailor suicides in one week, commander calls for prevention ideas

STARS AND STRIPES 
By CAITLIN DOORNBOS 
Published: September 23, 2019

The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush arrives at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., Feb. 21, 2019. WILLIAM HENSLEY/U.S. NAVY

Three sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush took their own lives last week, commanding officer Capt. Sean Bailey said in a post on the ship’s official Facebook page Tuesday morning.

The deaths follow a rising number of suicides in the Navy since 2015. Bailey said the deaths “mark the third, fourth and fifth crew-member suicides in the last two years” on the Norfolk, Va.-based ship alone.

The three deaths occurred separately and were unrelated to each other, he said. They bring to at least 49 the number of active-duty sailors who have killed themselves this year.

In the post, Bailey said his “heart is broken” and called for ideas on suicide prevention, adding that “there is never any stigma or repercussion from seeking help.”
read it here
UPDATE

Navy confirms string of recent suicides by USS George H.W. Bush sailors
CBS News
Brian Pascus
September 24, 2019

Four service members of the United States Navy have died by suicide between July and September of this year, officials have confirmed. The suicides involved four sailors assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier. Although two of the sailors killed themselves on the same day, the suicides did not occur on board the ship and authorities have said there is nothing to indicate the deaths are linked. read it here

*******

Here's an idea for you. Stop doing what you are doing and try something OLD~ instead of repeating what was "new" and worse.

It is not just the Navy suffering. It is all branches losing more to suicide than are lost in combat.
In the Air Force, they are trying to get the spouses of servicemembers to take action.

In a video running on the American Forces Network this month, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright tells viewers that 78 airmen have died by suicide so far this year - 28 more than had taken their own lives at the same point in 2018.

But we've heard all that before. We've pretty much heard it all and are fed up with repeated failures.

The "major malfunction" is no one in charge is paying enough attention to notice IT IS TIME TO CHANGE THE F##KING CONVERSATION! They have no clue what PTSD or what they can do to fight it.

Stop pandering to the "stigma" and reduce it down to the point reached when ancient people had to finally accept the fact the earth was not flat. The truth was still the  truth even though they refused to see it.

The "stigma" is fake news! What is wrong with surviving something that could have killed you and being changed by the event? Anything? Hell no!

Life changes everyone and it is up to us if we change again into something better. 

I am a ten time survivor of something that either could have killed me or, as I heard a few times, should have killed me. I ended up changed by the events, but fought take my life back into my control. 

I have been working on PTSD for 37 years and I have never seen so many people being so misinformed while still in charge.

Great job on raising awareness veterans are committing suicide...because more joined in

What reporters need to focus on regarding veterans killing themselves

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 21, 2019

The VA has this within the latest report about veterans committing suicide.

Average Number of Veteran Suicides per Day: 2005–2017
The average number of Veteran suicides per day increased from 2005 to 2017.

• In 2005, an average of 86.6 American adults, who included Veterans, died by suicide each day. In 2017, an average of 124.4 Americans died by suicide each day.

• In 2005, an average of 15.9 Veterans died by suicide each day. In 2017, an average of 16.8 Veterans died by suicide each day.

• The average number of Veteran suicide deaths per day has equaled or exceeded 16.0 since 2007.

• The average of 16.8 Veteran suicide deaths per day in 2017 was higher than the 16.4 average suicide deaths per day in 2016 and equal to or lower than in 2008–2011 and 2013–2015.

• 16.8 Veteran average deaths per day in 2017 is lower than the annual averages in 7 of the last 13 years.

Table 1. Total and Daily Average Numbers of Suicide Deaths, Title 38 Veterans, 2005–2017

And this is what they point to.

While this may seem as if no real changes, either way, have happened since 2005, the truth is just below that number.

As you can see, the number of veterans counting on us to actually pay attention, has dropped by almost 5 million, but the numbers remain far too high.

This is after over a decade of "raising awareness" that veterans are committing suicide and all the stunts, all the publicity, all the charities popping up all over the country, IT IS WORSE NOW FOR VETERANS NEEDING THE HELP TO HEAL!

And if you really want to know how little all those people know...consider this part.

Veteran Suicide Rates by Age Group
• Veterans ages 18–34 had the highest suicide rate in 2017 (44.5 per 100,000).
• The suicide rate for Veterans ages 18–34 increased by 76% from 2005 to 2017.
• Veterans ages 55–74 had the lowest suicide rate per 100,000 in 2017.
• The absolute number of suicides was highest among Veterans 55–74 years old. This group accounted for 38% of all Veteran deaths by suicide in 2017.

For female veterans, another group none of the new charities seem to care about, it has also gotten worse for them.

To all the charities out there doing your stunts and collecting millions a year, I have one question. 

Are you ready to start fighting for them or want to continue to pretend you are?

You got publicity for talking about them killing themselves and they joined in that group because they were never made aware of how to live longer!

UPDATE

Article on Military Times "Veteran suicides increase despite host of prevention, mental health efforts" is wrong on this.

Department officials in recent years have quoted the rate of veterans suicides across the country as “20 per day,” reflecting past figures which included active-duty military, guardsmen and reservists who served on active-duty, and National Guard and reserve members who were never federally activated.

Why? Aside from the fact the VA had to retract that, it would mean that there are a lot more suicides within the military than the DOD had been reporting.

The figure is higher than the sum of deaths reported by the individual services in January -- the result of continued death investigations -- and tragically exceeds the previous record of 321 in 2012. 

For three of the services, the numbers represent an increase over the previous year. The Army in 2017 saw 114 deaths by suicide, the Navy, 65, and the Marine Corps, 43. Only the Air Force saw a decline in suicide from the previous year. In 2017, it had 63. 

Earlier this year, Defense Department officials said the rates of suicide, which provide a more accurate understanding of the occurrence among the military population, are "devastating and unacceptable and not going in the desired direction."

Astonishing thing is, the retraction from the VA was by the same reporter for Military Times.

VA backs off suicide study that indicated thousands of unreported military deaths

WASHINGTON — Veterans Affairs officials are walking back a new suicide study which appeared to show thousands of unreported military deaths in recent years, saying differences among classifications of service members led to confusion in the statistics.

The other hidden truths in all of this are;

• Discharged servicemembers without an "honorable" discharge, are not counted in any report.
• National Guard and Reservists, who were not deployed into combat zones, are not counted as veterans.
• Veterans facing off with law enforcement are not counted.

UPDATE
The University of Maine had to "postpone" a showing of movie attached to the infamous number. Question; How did they have "sparse attendance" for something that was "postponed?"

Sparse attendance?

A showing of the independent film “Project 22” in the Memorial Union’s Coe Room was postponed from Wednesday, Sept. 18 until the University of Maine’s Veteran’s Week in November, because of sparse attendance. Wednesday’s planned screening was set to coincide with National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month, which is being observed this September across Maine and throughout America.

UPDATE 

Alarming VA Report Totals Decade of Veteran Suicides
Military.com
By Richard Sisk
23 Sep 2019

The Department of Veterans Affairs released an alarming report Friday showing that at least 60,000 veterans died by suicide between 2008 and 2017, with little sign that the crisis is abating despite suicide prevention being the VA's top priority.

Although the total population of veterans declined by 18% during that span of years, more than 6,000 veterans died by suicide annually, according to the VA's 2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report.

The report did not take into account the possible effects of VA's programs aimed at outreach and removing the stigma of seeking help for mental health. Overall, though, the data show the suicide rate is increasing.

In 2017, more than 6,100 veterans died by suicide, an increase of 2% over 2016 and a total increase of 6% since 2008, the report found.

Firearms were the method of suicide in 70.7% of male veteran suicide deaths and 43.2% of female veteran suicide deaths in 2017, the report found.

Of particular concern was the suicide rate among former National Guard and Reserve members who were never federally activated and therefore, did not receive VA services. Within that population, there were 919 suicides in 2017, an average of 2.5 per day, the report said. Some 12.4% of all military suicides in 2017 were among this population, the report found.

Overall in 2017, the suicide rate for veterans was 1.5 times the rate for non-veteran adults, after adjusting for population differences in age and sex, the report said.
read it here

Suicide hype hurts

VA "round table" left veterans falling off

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 21, 2019

"Veterans who have survived the battlefield and return home continue to die by suicide at nearly twice the rate of people who have never served."

That is according to a report on Rocket City. The problem with that, much like the rest of the "report" is that claim is false. The truth is, what is known about veterans killing themselves, depends on which state they live in.

According to the most recent VA National Suicide Data Report, the veteran suicide rate in the U.S. increased nearly 26% between 2005 and 2016. Pennsylvania’s veteran suicide rate is 31.1 per 100,000, marginally above the national rate of 30.1. The national total suicide rate is 17.5 per 100,000. (Post Gazette)

The report was about yet another "round table" to discuss veterans killing themselves. It is doubtful the conversation involved the history of efforts made, list of things that failed, anymore than it involved what works.

Department of Veterans Affairs Suicide Prevention Program Acting Director Dr. Matt Miller said a lot to the reporter, including this.

“We are uniquely collaborating with the community to develop local community-based suicide prevention plans.” Miller also said the VA’s “Be There Campaign” which raises awareness about veteran suicides and encourages everyday people to support veterans. “We are doing a lot with veteran suicide.”

Seriously? What did he think was being done before this? When the results were actually better and BTW lower in the civilian rate of suicide as well, that proved help works but hype hurts.

We found more benefits standing side by side with someone, than we did pulling a stunt. We found lives changed when we did not allow ourselves to seek our own fame, but earned the trust of those who turned to us for help.

We offered a glimpse of hope and the path to get there by what we proved in our own lives. Happier days are possible and, yes, even miracles happen.

Instead of publicizing what will return hope to those who need it the most, too many are hoping that no one notices talk is cheap for them, but rakes in millions in donations every year. For what? Repeating a number as if it was a fact? Reminding veterans they are killing themselves?

Ask them who they are trying to raise awareness to and you will hear them claim their targets are veterans. Problem with that is, they already know how to die but do not know how to stay alive. We have First Responders committing suicide at higher rates, and most of them were also veterans.

People learn when they are made aware of something. Some thought the world was flat until they were made aware that no one fell off the side. People thought that all illnesses were by the judgement of God for some sin committed instead of what biology does, until they learned otherwise.

It is time for people to become wise enough to learn what is needed and that is to change the conversation from veterans taking their own lives into how they can take back their lives!

Time to become aware of possibilities or we are doomed to extend the probability of more choosing death because they are not aware of the power they do still have.

It is astonishingly stupid to see people drop down to do 22 pushups when their own peers are deciding to die. The same peers they trust with their lives on the job, cannot be trusted with what those jobs are doing to them? Seriously? But this is what we get when no one is talking about what is needed and proven to work.

Next they say the targets are civilians, but again, they are also committing suicide in higher numbers. Given the fact that only an oblivious idiot would ignore the fact the people who risk their lives to save lives, taking their own lives, takes self-worth away.

What they are doing "a lot of" is not working, so basically, they are doing a lot of repeating what failed instead of obtaining some basic knowledge of what was learned over the last 40 years.

PTSD "help heal your shattered soul, until once again, my love, you are whole."

Reducing Veteran Deaths this Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

BeLatina
By Daily News
September 9, 2019

"Broken by battle, wounded by war. My love is forever to you, this I swore. I will quiet your silent screams, help heal your shattered soul, until once again, my love, you are whole."

Suicide Prevention Awareness Month should serve as a reminder for all of us to look out for the most vulnerable members of our communities, many of whom become suicidal following life experiences that most of us can hardly fathom. Military veterans are one of the groups most at risk for suicide, facing a much higher rate than the average American adult does, even as suicide rates for the general public have risen to their highest levels in modern and recent history. 

As of a 2015 report from the Pew Research Center, Latinos made up approximately 12 percent of the U.S. military, a rapidly growing contingent, so military suicide prevention will likely become a growing concern for the Latinx community in the years to come.

A few weeks prior to this year’s Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Mark Takano called upon the nation to consider veteran suicides an urgent national crisis, demanding a “nation-wide stand-down” in order to implement effective strategies that will immediately save veteran lives. He cited the fact that Congressional action has been insufficient in addressing this national crisis. “That’s why I’m calling for VA to hold a nation-wide suicide stand-down within the next 15 days so every leadership executive, administrator, nurse, doctor, and employee across VA understands how to identify veterans in crisis and get them the help they need,” he said in a statement late last month. He pointed out that there is no national director or leader in this initiative, a predicament that certainly has handicapped any campaigns to reducing suicide deaths among veterans. read it here

Lifeline Ukraine trying to break stigma of PTSD in veterans

Removing the Stigma: Ukraine Launches Suicide Prevention Hotline for Veterans

Atlantic Council
BY PETER DICKINSON
SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

According to the World Health Organization, Ukraine currently ranks eighth internationally in terms of suicide rates among the population. It is one of a staggering six post-Soviet countries to feature in the global top ten (Lithuania is in first position followed by Russia in second place, Belarus in fifth, Kazakhstan in seventh, and Latvia in ninth). This hints at a vast mental health crisis across the whole of the former USSR, making initiatives like Lifeline Ukraine even more urgent.

Ukrainian veterans take part in the March of Defenders of Ukraine as part of Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 24, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenk

Autumn 2019 will see the official launch of Lifeline Ukraine, the country’s first professional suicide prevention and mental health support hotline. Recruitment of counselors has focused on Ukraine’s pool of approximately 400,000 combat veterans from the country’s undeclared but ongoing war with Russia. After completing training with international specialists in veteran mental health issues, they will begin working around the clock at the Lifeline Ukraine offices in Kyiv’s Podil district.

The launch of Lifeline Ukraine cannot come too soon. Mental health problems among former military personnel are a major social issue, and one that the country remains ill equipped to address. Prior to the Russian invasion of 2014, post-Soviet Ukraine had no experience of dealing with the trauma of military conflict, or of providing support for those left damaged by war. This was just one of the many ways in which Ukraine was completely unprepared for the onset of Russian aggression. Understandably, the country initially focused attention on defending itself against the immediate military threat, but the accompanying mental health challenges created by the conflict have since made themselves abundantly apparent.

There are no exact figures available for the number of suicides among Ukrainian military personnel and veterans, but experts believe at least 900 have taken their own lives since the start of hostilities five-and-a-half years ago.
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Are you listening to Suicide Prevention?

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill Talks About Mental Health With 'Boomer And Gio'

WFAN
BOOMER AND GIO
SEPTEMBER 06, 2019

On Sunday, Entercom stations will air a two-hour “I’m Listening” special at 7 a.m. to help end the stigma about discussing mental health.

The initiative is being undertaken to help mark the start of National Suicide Prevention Week. You can call in live Sunday and join artists, athletes and medical professionals for an in-depth conversation about mental health and suicide prevention.

To help lend awareness to the issue and to Sunday’s special, Boomer and Gio were joined in studio Friday morning by NYPD police Commissioner James O’Neill, who spoke about the tragic series of police officer suicides that have recently happened in New York.

“The biggest issue that we face is having people come forward when they’re experiencing some difficulties and mental health challenges, and that’s difficult as a police officer," he said. "I don’t think anyone would argue with me there ... What do we do as cops? We protect people. It’s important that people know that it’s a sign of strength if you come forward for help.”
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On the show

Photo credit NowMattersNow.org

Dr. Ursula Whiteside is a licensed clinical psychologist and the CEO of NowMattersNow.org, an organization that helps people through shared stories and mindfulness. Whiteside is a leading researcher, dealing with high-risk patients and working to develop programs to change how we approach mental health. She is also a founding board member of United Suicide Survivors International and a member of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Standards Trainings and Practices Committee.

But as a researcher, she gave the standard numbers on suicide, and saying the numbers are going down in the veteran community. We know the truth on that because they have actually gone up. We know they have gone up within the military too. They are falling at the highest level since the DOD began tracking them...over a decade ago.


Disturbed Ready to Fight the Demon of Depression and Addiction

“Regarding this demon that so many of our love ones and so many people close to us are struggling with of addiction and depression, and not being ashamed to talk about it and not being ashamed to come forward,” says Draiman in the preview of their appearance above. “You shouldn’t feel that you have to deal with that battle on your own.”

The song echoes that statement, prompted by the death of friends and family members who lost their battle, powerfully delivered with importance and impact from the GRAMMY-nominated band. “People need to be advocates,” Draiman continues. “People need to get involved. If they see the warning signs, if they see somebody falling prey to depression, to addiction, intervene. Don’t wait. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

Suicide Awareness is the biggest factor in all of this. Making them aware of so many others who lost their battle, instead of giving them the weapons to battle for their lives, is worse than nothing.

Letting them know that it is OK to talk about not being OK, is helpful. Talking about how the lives of the speakers on this show changed from hopelessness to inspirational, is helpful.

After 37 years in this, we know what failed, but we also know what worked!

Why didn't the DOD know they would cause more suicides?

Why do Pentagon heads remain deaf, dumb and blind to the misery they spread?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 6, 2019

If you are guessing I am more angry than usual lately, you are correct. Too bad the leaders in this country are still delusional. It is almost as if pushing the "prevention" training has not worked after a decade, then they have to push it harder. As if something like that would ever make sense to rational people.

May 9, 2009 I wrote that Comprehensive Soldier Fitness would make it worse for those who serve and would increase suicides.

"If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them."

I was right and that should freak everyone out. Why? Because I am not in charge. I am not a paid expert with a long list of degrees. I was never in the military. Freak out because all I did was pay attention to them. Why didn't the ones in charge?

What we have seen ever since then was predicted, so no one should settle for "we did not know then" just as they should not settle for not knowing now.

The facts remain that the number of suicides has reached an all time high. The fact that the known suicides among OEF and OIF veterans has also remained high, even though they were trained to not do it, is the direct result of this malfunctioning preventive!

IT WAS THEIR JOB TO KNOW WHAT THEY WERE DOING. TO KNOW IF IT WOULD WORK BEFORE THEY PUSHED IT. TO HAVE THE COMMON SENSE TO STOP DOING IT AS SOON AS MORE WERE COMMITTING SUICIDE!

You heard the rumor, now know the truth on veterans committing suicide

A lie let them choose to die

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
September 6, 2019

This is the spawn of a lie that has spread throughout the country. 22 Veterans Commit Suicide Every Day - Team Kodiak Challenge

Coast Guard Base Kodiak units gathered together to participate in the Save 22: Veteran Suicide Awareness and Prevention Push Up Challenge, Aug. 29, 2019, in Kodiak, Alaska.

The challenge serves as a reminder that every day, 22 veterans commit suicide, and by participating in this challenge, Base Kodiak hopes to spread the message, create awareness and provide resources to those who are dealing with or are affected by suicide-related issues.

Does anyone really think that pushing your face into the ground will make a veteran think "gee they are doing pushups, so I should stay alive today" instead of thinking about all the other "22" who did it that day?

Watch the video and know this BS is part of the problem. They already know they are killing themselves and they know how to do it. What they do not know is how to heal and spread that message out the way these stunts spread death.

Spread the message about what? "What's the problem? It's just a number!" That is what people use to respond when confronted with the truth. The problem is, that "number" is supposed to represent the number of veterans who end up taking their own lives because their "problem" is not even worth knowing what the actual truth is.

A reminder of a lie? It is not now, nor ever has been 22 a day. It had been 22 the VA was aware of at the time, but even they warned the "number" should not be considered a fact. The VA only had limited data from just 21 states. Aside from the states that were not included, they did not have data from anyone who did not have an honorable discharge. Why? Because they are not counted as "veteran" even if they were part of the over 3 million kicked out of the service because of what their service did to them.

So, the Coast Guard is doing pushups and repeating the "number" one reason more veterans at taking their own lives than before.

And yet, with all the "awareness" that suicides are happening, they seem to have learned nothing from them. The suicide of Petty Officer 1st Class Jose Christopher Trujillo-Daza is a reflection of what all the stunts produced.

Yet in spite of the mandated suicide prevention training and the promotion of CG SUPRT, Wright-Williams acknowledges there may be some people, like Trujillo-Daza, who may not be reached by—or reach out to—those services.

The last drill weekend she saw Petty Officer 1st Class Jose Christopher Trujillo-Daza alive, Petty Officer 2nd Class Natalie Crane ate lunch with her coxswain and section leader.

“He was sitting on the boat, and we were eating, and he said, ‘This right here, being on a boat with buddies? This makes it all worth it,’” Crane remembered.

A week later, Trujillo-Daza was dead, a victim of suicide. Crane and her fellow reservists at Port Security Unit 313 in Everett, Wash., were stunned. What had happened in the intervening days? What else could they have done to prevent it?

In the past five years, 10 Coast Guard reservists have died by suicide, an average of two a year. That percentage is lower than that of other military branches and on par with the civilian suicide rate. It’s also small enough that statisticians and health professionals have difficulty pinpointing patterns that would provide Trujillo-Daza’s shipmates reliable answers or contexts.

All the things civilians are capable of, these men and women, like the members of the military, also commit murder-suicide with their own families. 

The difference is these men and women dedicated their lives to doing whatever they could to save lives...not take them.

Oh, sorry I failed to mention that the members of the Coast Guard are not counted within the military numbers, or veteran numbers.

Then again, people can spin anything. That was made clear by the recent report of US military members having less "mental disorders" than the general public.

Diagnoses for mental health conditions among active-duty U.S. military personnel have remained steady over the last four years, with 8.3% of the total force diagnosed in 2018, compared with 8% in 2014, according to a new study from the Defense Department.

The study looked at the number of diagnoses for eight mental health conditions, including adjustment disorder, alcohol dependence, anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis and substance abuse, and found that the most common mental health diagnoses in troops were adjustment disorder, anxiety and depression.

That does not mean there are actually less with things like PTSD. It means there are less getting diagnosed and treated than the general public. When you factor in that all branches of the military have reached the highest level of suicides, that study should be sounding alarms all over the country.

No one is tracking the number of veterans facing off with members of law enforcement, but in 2017 we found it happened at least once a week all over the country.


Police officers commit suicide while serving, also as retirees. So do firefighters, other first responders and even Marshals.

The air marshal union letter to the OSC notes that just over a year earlier, TSA Administrator David Pekoske received an email from union officials "dated June 9, 2018 entitled ‘Concerned FAMS,’ where he was warned that unless immediate action was taken more tragedies would occur," but failed to react. “Since that warning the agency has seen 4 suicides, a murder suicide, and its first on duty death,” the letter grimly notes. The letter is dated July 22, the same day last month that a Washington D.C.-based supervisory air marshal named William Sondervan, 46, was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

It happens because veterans like Everett Glenn Miller , did not receive the help they needed in the military during his over 20 year career, or afterwards.

"This was truly the perfect storm," Mills told jurors. "He was homeless, he didn't have a job, he was heartbroken. ... He was admonished for being a walk-in at the VA three days before this crime was committed."

Joe Biden is being questioned for being partly right, but the fact that more commit suicide than die in battle has been going on for decades, as far as the reports go back to, but again, no one knows the whole truth on any of this. Why? Because it is easier to just talk about something happening than it is to actually do something about it.

Biden’s claim that more Iraq/Afghanistan veterans have committed suicide than were killed in action
The Washington Post
By Glenn Kessler
September 5, 2019

“More suicides per month in the U.S. military, returning vets, than people killed in action, by a long shot.”
— Former vice president Joe Biden, at a town hall event at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., Aug. 23, 2019

The Washington Post recently detailed how the former vice president told a moving but false story about an incident in Afghanistan. While watching a clip of the lengthy monologue that led to this tale, we were struck by his claim that there are more suicides per month of returning veterans than those killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan — “by a long shot.”

This seemed an interesting subject for a fact check, though it turned out the data is sketchy and not especially clear. There’s also an added wrinkle — what did Biden, who is not especially precise in his phrasing, mean with his comment?

The Facts
When we first watched this clip, we assumed that Biden was comparing the number of military personnel killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan over the course of the two wars — about nearly 5,400 — with the number of veterans of those conflicts who have taken their own lives.

Before he made this statement, Biden said: “Every year for the last 13 years I have wanted to know I call every morning to the Defense Department, not a joke, to learn exactly how many women and men have been killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. Every single one of them is a fallen angel left behind an entire community. … It’s 6,883, as of this morning.” (There are different ways to crunch the numbers, but it’s about 7,000.)

Biden continued: “Know how many are coming back with post-traumatic stress? 300,000. 300,000 estimated.” (He appears to be referring to a 2008 Rand Corp. study that said 20 percent of military service members, or 300,000 at the time, report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder — PTSD — or major depression.)
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“If we do not focus on [suicide prevention]…we will be doing a disservice to those Veterans we care for, and a disservice to the memories of those millions who have come before.The most definitive answer that we can give to our fellow Americans and to our Veterans, is that this is a task that we will all conquer together."VA Secretary Robert Wilkie