Is what we read on veterans suicides reliable?

Is the 22-Veterans-Per-Day Suicide Rate Reliable? on Huffington Post by Dustin DeMoss left me wondering if what we read is reliable or not. There is so much that we don't talk about and until we do, we will keep repeating the past.

Wounded Times · Top Commenter · Editor, Publisher and Videographer at Wounded Times Blog

Seriously? Think about what you just wrote. Then think of all the other bills coming out of congress since the granddaddy Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention bill in 2007- signed by President Bush in 2008. Boat loads of bills passed since then, billions a year spent by the DOD, VA and other departments yet the suicide rate remained unchanged. State after state are still reporting that veterans committing suicide are twice the civilian rate. Same as back in 2008 after years of listening to families begging congress to make a difference. More charities popping up plus the suicide prevention/crisis hotline, more outreach and more families still having to bury a veteran.

I'd love to take the easy way out and jump into the ever growing number of voices to pass the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act but after years of tracking all of this and having to explain to the families why their veteran lost all hope, I'd prefer to stay honest and tell the truth.

Here's so links to post on Wounded Times in case you missed them.

A 24-hour confidential Veteran’s Crisis Line first established in 2007 for veterans, their families and friends fielded about 287,000 calls, 54,800 online chats, and 11,300 text messages in fiscal year 2013, the report says.

Do you care twice as many veterans commit suicide than civilians do?

Reducing Military Suicides Impossible Dream with These Folks in Charge

After we get through all of that then maybe we can talk about the other really important fact and that is the majority of veterans committing suicide are 50 and over.

"Veterans over the age of 50 who had entered the VA healthcare system made up about 78 percent of the total number of veterans who committed suicide"

Canada: Suicide is based on sense of hopelessness

This report is out of Canada about what families go through after losing someone they love to suicide.

Durham families haunted by the ‘why’ of suicide
Inside Halton.com
January 5, 2015

Protective factors

• Feeling like you belong • Spending time with people you enjoy • Having good physical health • Feeling in control of your life • Being able to solve problems • Having your basic needs met (e.g. safe housing, stable income)

Risk factors

• Childhood trauma • Traumatic life experience • Being isolated and or feeling alone • Having alcohol, drug and/or gambling problems • Having a parent with a mental health problem or illness Source: Durham Region health department

“I felt that deep sense of responsibility had slipped through my hands. That was unbearable. We were supposed to be there for each other ... why did I not see it, why? The word ‘why’ has a lot of counterparts to it.”

And as much as the “why” haunts suicide survivor families, there are no simple answers.

According to the World Health Organization, someone takes their own life every 40 seconds, and for every one of them, there are many more people who attempt suicide. 

Let that sink in for a minute.  

Long enough.

Add in that almost every hour a US veteran has taken his/her own life. 

Families get the added misery of trying to figure out how they made it through combat, but not able to make it back home where they were loved.

Shameless! WWII Veteran Award Ceremony Disrupted by Protesters

This veteran was being honored for his service. Dario Raschio is 100 years old and fought for this country in WWII.

The ----ing jerks showing up to protest this proved a lot of things but being worthy of attention wasn't one of them.  They know nothing about what freedom is. They know nothing about how our freedom was obtained and retained. They care nothing about the men and women putting their lives on the line everyday so they can show up, use their free speech rights to prove to everyone they don't care at all for duty, honor or respect. The worst thing in all of this none of them acknowledge the man they showed contempt for risked his life.

These are the medals he earned so long ago.

As you'll read in this article, they didn't care about anything else either.

2 Portland protesters arrested after march, others disrupt veteran ceremony
KATU
By Reed Andrews and KATU.com Staff
Published: Jan 4, 2015

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Two protesters were arrested Saturday after they refused to use the sidewalk and clear the road for traffic, according to Portland Police.

On Saturday Portland Police were dispatched to SE 82 Ave. and Foster Rd. where there were reports of several protesters marching on 82 Ave. in the street. 

A protest against police brutality interrupted a town hall meeting just as a 100-year-old war veteran was being honored.

Dario Raschio was getting a medal from Senator Ron Wyden.

Protesters from Don’t Shoot PDX came to the town hall and started chanting.

Senator Wyden let their protest continue for a bit, before taking the microphone and asking everyone to quiet down.

Raschio finally was honored, but someone in the crowd shouted to interrupt him.

The protests got mixed reviews.

“Democracy at its best,” said activist Joe Walsh. “The people took over a town hall meeting, can you imagine that.”
read more here

So Joe Walsh, I want to answer "can you imagine that" by simply saying shouting "don't shoot" during a ceremony to honor a combat veteran was not only disrespectful it was downright stupid. Your free speech rights, protected by men like him, gave you the right to prove you are a moron. "Democracy at its best" seriously? Democracy at its best was sitting right in front of you because he was willing to die for it.

Navy veteran, 100, cheered for standing up to protesters at medal ceremony
FOX News
January 5, 2015

A 100-year-old U.S. Navy veteran drew cheers from a crowd in Oregon Saturday after telling protesters shouting "hands-up, don't shoot!" to stop interrupting his medal ceremony and to “show a little respect.”

Dario Raschio was at Portland Community College's Southeast Campus to be honored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, at a public town hall meeting. But shortly after Wyden began speaking, more than 100 demonstrators in the back of the room started shouting, The Oregonian reports.

After 15 minutes of chanting against the deaths of unarmed black men by white police officers, Wyden was able to talk the group into quieting down so he could continue with the medal ceremony.

Raschio joined the Navy at the age of 27 and participated in five campaigns in the Pacific theater, flying observational planes based off the USS Chester. He was awarded a frame filled with medals, including the U.S. Naval Aviator Badge, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the "Ruptured Duck" award and the U.S. Navy Honorable discharge pin.
read more here

Military Bereavement Study on Grief Covers All Causes

Military families in largest ever bereavement study share insights on grief
Stars and Stripes
By DAVID CRARY
The Associated Press
Published: January 4, 2015

"Regardless of how the person died, at some point in their life they stepped forward to raise their right hand and say `I will protect this nation"

This Dec. 16, 2014 photo shows the wedding photo of Army widow, Aimee Wriglesworth, and her late husband, Chad, on display in her home in Bristow, Va. The couple married when Chad was in the Air Force; he later transferred to the Army, where he rose to the rank of Major. Wriglesworth lost her husband to cancer in 2013. By the hundreds, other widows, widowers, parents, siblings and children are sharing accounts of their grief as part of the largest study ever of America's military families as they go through bereavement.
STEVE HELBER/AP

With his wife and child close at hand, Army Maj. Chad Wriglesworth battled skin cancer for more than a year before dying at age 37.

"It was long and painful and awful," said Aimee Wriglesworth, who believes the cancer resulted from exposure to toxic fumes in Iraq. Yet the 28-year-old widow from Bristow, Virginia, seized a chance to recount the ordeal and its aftermath to a researcher, hoping that input from her and her 6-year-old daughter might be useful to other grieving military families.

"To be able to study what we felt and what we're going through - maybe this will help people down the line," Wriglesworth said.

By the hundreds, other widows, widowers, parents, siblings and children are sharing accounts of their grief as part of the largest study ever of America's military families as they go through bereavement. About 2,000 people have participated over the past three years, and one-on-one interviews will continue through February.

The federally funded project is being conducted by the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress at the Maryland-based Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. The study is open to families of the more than 19,000 service members from all branches of the military who have died on active duty since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, regardless of whether the death resulted from combat, accident, illness, suicide or other causes.

Of all the active-duty deaths in the period being studied, about 13 percent were suicides. Accidents accounted for 35 percent, combat 30 percent, illness 15 percent and homicide 3 percent, according to Cozza.

One of the major partners for the study is the Arlington, Virginia-based support group known as TAPS - the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. It was founded in 1994 by Bonnie Carroll two years after her husband, a brigadier general, died in an Army plane crash.

Carroll said she was heartened that the study encompassed all types of deaths, even including service members responsible for murder-suicides.

"Regardless of how the person died, at some point in their life they stepped forward to raise their right hand and say `I will protect this nation,'" Carroll said.
read more here

PTSD Army Veteran Talks About How Support Helps Healing

Army veteran gives advice to people with PTSD
KBTV FOX 4 News
by Jessica Crawford
January 5 2015

BEAUMONT

Baca says a support system helps veterans with PTSD achieve peace.

In 2010, Elvin Baca served as a specialist in the Army. During his one year tour, he lost two friends and suffered many injuries to his body.

It wasn't until he got home, however, that he realized his body wasn't the only thing that was scarred.

"You're fighting your mind a lot," says Baca. "You're telling yourself, you're not there anymore.

Nothing's going to happen." Baca is coping with post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The disorder is something many veterans may struggle with as they return home from the war in Afghanistan this year.
read more here and watch video