This caught my eye in a letter from my Congresswoman:
Twenty-two veterans commit suicide every day
Apparently that’s older data. There’s a new study out:
The study brings precision to a question that has never been definitively answered: the actual number of suicides since the start of the recent wars.
Though past research has also found elevated suicide rates, those results were estimates based on smaller samples and less reliable methods to identify veteran deaths. The government has not systematically tracked service members after they leave the military.
The new analysis, which will be published in the February issue of the Annals of Epidemiology, included all 1,282,074 veterans who served in active-duty units between 2001 and 2007 and left the military during that period.
The analysis matched military records with the National Death Index, which collects data on every U.S. death. It tracked the veterans after service until the end of the 2009, finding a total of 1,868 suicides.
That equates to an annual suicide rate of 29.5 per 100,000 veterans, or roughly 50% higher than the rate among other civilians with similar demographic characteristics.
The rate among women is higher, and the rate for Iraq/Afghanistan vets is worse than for Vietnam vets.
Belafon
So, the actual answer is one suicide per day. Men are three times more likely to kill themselves than women.
And I believe conservative the answer to this is to cut spending on studies like this so they can cut healthcare funding for everyone.
constitutional mistermix
@Belafon: I don’t know because the second study is only Iraq/Afghanistan victims, and the 22/day number probably includes all conflicts.
Say the rate is 25 per 100K per year for all vets (since Afghan/Iraq vets have a higher than average rate). There are ~20 million vets in the US, so the number is more like 14/day on average.
Gin & Tonic
@constitutional mistermix: Census Bureau says 21.5 million. So somewhere around 17/day.
PurpleGirl
Another accomplishment the Bush (mal)administration can be proud of.
Cervantes
@constitutional mistermix:
Depending on how one interprets the aggregate data quoted above, it’s also possible that an average of about four suicides per week occurred between 2001 and 2009. Other ways of interpreting the data may generate other numbers, so I’m waiting to see the article before drawing any conclusions.
But thanks for the heads-up.
raven
I was onboard with Montel Williams when he was on Tweety before the holidays. It was pretty moving when he began to cry while talking about this. I was just a bit less so with him, not the issue, when he did a repeat Tuesday night.
raven
This was last month
Retiring U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) has never shied away from controversial remarks or positions, but one of his last actions in Washington was a real poke in the eye to those who are working to prevent veterans’ suicides.
Coburn singlehandedly blocked the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act (pdf), named for a former Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who killed himself in 2011. The measure, which the House passed last week, would create pilot program that would help veterans transition to civilian life, a website providing information on mental health services available to veterans, mandate the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) submit their suicide prevention programs to independent review and incentivize psychiatrists to work with the VA.
NotMax
Looking at the statistics per 100k populations kind of elides the gross numbers.
22 times 365 = 8030
Per the CDC’s data (for 2011), total number of suicides was 39,518.
39.518 minus 8030 = 31,488
Divided by 365, that comes out to ~86 civilian suicides per day, nearly 4 times the number for vets.
Cervantes
@raven:
Right. Coburn blocked it in the Senate, ostensibly because: it was not properly paid for and anyway it duplicated existing programs.
Now that Coburn is gone, the bill has been re-introduced in the House.
PurpleGirl
Too many, just too many veterans feel they have no future. Sen. Coburn, far too many veterans suicide. We promised them healthcare and we are betraying those promises. They didn’t sign up to come back so hurt in body and MIND they can’t live a ‘normal’ life again.
CONGRATULATIONS!
You can argue and add these numbers any way you want. They are irrelevant. In fact, they are worse than irrelevant, they are a distraction that plays right into the hands of those who seek to prevent our veterans from getting care. Because then we argue about numbers, instead of the issue. Read this thread if you think I’m wrong.
The greater point is that we, as a society, are absolutely failing to take care of our military and their families after putting them through a 12 year meatgrinder that still has no end in sight.
Monty
@constitutional mistermix:
FYI, here’s the VA report with the underlying data re 22 suicides/day.
Related:
Why suicide rate among veterans may be more than 22 a day
raven
@CONGRATULATIONS!: read what?
Cervantes
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
That is the bigger point, I agree — but if one wants to, or needs to, use statistics in order to help argue the bigger point, then those statistics ought to be defensible. Whereas if you can create an argument, or help the movement, without making numerical assertions, then that’s fine, too.
Elizabelle
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Thank you. That’s a truth that could draw bipartisan support (and forget about the hard right wing fantasists and the dead-end 27%, although they might include some veterans who are persuadable).
Monty
@NotMax:
The CDC link indicates the overall suicide rate as Deaths per 100,000 population: 12.7 (note: this includes everyone; i.e. civs AND vets)
Yeah but there are 13 times as many civilians as vets (311MM v 22MM)
Belafon
Thanks for the correction. Though I will say that after reading the other comments I’m still not exactly sure what the suicide rate is for civilians or the military.
Lee
Another tidbit I read about this (I have no verified).
Is that the rate is higher for non-deployed service members than it is for deployed service members.
MomSense
With several of the veterans with whom I’ve worked who are dealing with PTSD, therapy dogs have been life savers–literally life savers.
I think there are a number of organizations who help provide and train therapy dogs. If there is a good one in your area, please consider helping or donating.
@raven:
I happened to see that segment, too and it was really moving. I don’t understand how a Senator could vote to send troops to war and then neglect them when they need help dealing with the consequences of their service.
balconesfault
I suspect there are a lot more troops returning from Iraq/Afghanistan with severe head trauma that can lead to mental illness and thus to suicide.
Mainly because we’ve become so good at designing body armor, etc, that protects these soldiers from being killed by a lot of the things that would have killed them in Vietnam. But that doesn’t mean their brains weren’t scrambled in the process.
Add multiple tours of duty … often for older reservists whose lives back home were already established and then destroyed by the time spent abroad as the wars dragged on and on.
Lavocat
I am a very hardened cynic, but this is the sort of thing that brings tears to my eyes.
We have apparently entered The Age of The Disposable Patriot.
Thank you for your service, now fuck off and (literally) die.
These veterans deserve soooooooooooooooooooooo much more than this. This is a stain on the entire nation.
Bystander
The stain is on the Republican Party for preventing a measly $22,000,000 program to stanch the blood.
raven
@MomSense: Which one, December or Tuesday?
currants
@NotMax: Ok, so…I’m wondering about active duty suicides (because a niece’s husband is/was one recently). Are they counted in the vets numbers or the civilians numbers?
Grung_e_Gene
Just so you know, unless it personally affects them, no one really gives a shit. Except Republicans who are happy when Veterans kill themselves because it means more money can be transferred to the MIC and the Plutocrats.
MomSense
@raven:
December when he choked up on air with Matthews (I think??)
NotMax
@Monty
For the sake of comparing apples to apples, one should look at civilians 18 and up, which is a much, much less than 311 million.
Regardless, the point was that pulling a single statistic out may well distort the picture.