Last week, Trump administration officials gathered for a biannual military suicide prevention conference in Nashville. Their subject: the high, and climbing, suicide rate for U.S. veterans.
The Trump administration has taken steps to label veteran suicides a national public health crisis that warrants a coordinated governmental response. Despite efforts to curb the trend, officials are finding that the problem remains intractable, according to a Washington Times reporter who spoke with Trump administration officials about new strategies to combat the crisis.
“The trend is not going in the direction that we want. It’s extremely concerning,” said Karin Orvis, director of the Pentagon’s suicide prevention office. “We have to do better.”
Veteran suicide rate jumps
It’s a bleak reality: after serving their country honorably, Americans in uniform often come home with health problems and mental trauma that make returning to civilian life difficult. Too often, the consequences end with tragedy: each day, about 20 veterans commit suicide. Department of Defense statistics last year found that the suicide rate for veterans aged 18 to 34 had jumped 10 percent from 2015 to 2016.
At the gathering of private and public officials last week, VA and DoD officials highlighted collaboration between the private and public sectors as part of a new strategy to address the crisis. While sounding a cautious note of optimism, officials at the 2019 VA/DOD Suicide Prevention Conference acknowledged a disappointing lack of progress. “It’s amazing to me that we’re not any farther along,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie told the Times.
The Trump administration has taken steps to combat the dismal trend. In June, the White House formed the first-ever task force to form a government response to veterans’ suicides as a public health crisis: the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End the National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS) task force. Wilkie said that he expects an upcoming PREVENTS report to shed light on the deeper causes of the epidemic.
“If we just focus on the last tragic act in a veteran’s life as opposed to looking at the continuum of events that can lead to that — homelessness, addiction, mental health issues — then it’s just another federal report. It becomes a doorstop,” he said.
Officials cite stigma toward mental illness
While suicide rates for the general population have increased, the rate for veterans has consistently outpaced the wider public. According to the Pentagon, 325 active-duty military members and 216 in the reserves killed themselves last year, surpassing the record set in 2012. From 2005 to 2016, the suicide rate climbed 26 percent among veterans, compared with 21 percent in the general population.
A rash of veteran suicides in and outside VA hospitals in recent years and months have renewed criticism of VA health care. In April, three veterans killed themselves in five days — two in VA parking lots, one in a waiting room. But some two-thirds of veterans who commit suicide are not in contact with or getting care from the VA, leaving some Trump administration officials to think that part of the problem is a culture of stigma towards receiving mental help.
“There’s been a stigma throughout the history of our country that I still think you see manifestations of today,” Wilkie told the Times. “In the military, there’s always been a reluctance to address those issues. But with many issues, certainly complicated ones, just starting to talk about it is a step forward. People would run from this label, mental illness. Families would panic, communities would panic.”
But all the same, helping veterans starts with the human level of face-to-face interactions. “This September, and all year, I encourage everyone to take a moment to be there for Veterans in need,” Wilkie said in a VA press release Monday. “One act of thoughtfulness can make a big difference and may even save a life. That’s why, VA is proud to work on initiatives like PREVENTS, to prevent suicide and find innovative ways to deliver support and care to all 20 million U.S. Veterans whenever and wherever they need it.”
For more on how you can help, check out the Veterans Crisis Lines’ #BeThere campaign here.
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