Perilous Times
U.S. Military suicides Kill more than the battles
23.11.2010
The number of soldiers committing suicide is higher than that of the
soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001
The list continues to grow inexorably. It contains the names of those
who returned home from the trenches of the war against terrorism, but
lost control of themselves, a war that has left more dead than the U.S.
mission in Afghanistan.
The figures demonstrate the drama. More than 1,100 American veterans
have committed suicide between 2005 and 2009. These are the numbers
revealed and released by the U.S. DoD (Department of Defense). To
further clarify, this is an approximation by default and there is no
complete data of a phenomenon that has become a national emergency.
It is a number even the Taliban and Afghan warlords have not been
actually able to inflict on the U.S. military during the eight years of
the conflict. What has hit harder is the mixture of depression and
loneliness that has been provoked. The situation does not show any
signs of improvement.
The numbers speak of a rapidly growing phenomenon. The DoD recorded 267
suicides in 2008, and 309 the following year. But the Department of
Veterans Affairs (DVA) provides different figures. In 2009, the total
was 707 suicides, of which 98 are veterans who returned from Iraq and
Afghanistan. Another 10,675 soldiers attempted suicide of which 1,868
had fought in the two main fronts of Washington in the fight against
terrorism.
To generalize, approximately 20% of the 30,000 persons who decided to
commit suicide in the U.S. are veterans. More than 6,000 soldiers per
year, according to 18 newspapers. Statistics show that the suicide rate
among the civilian population is 11.1% per 100,000 inhabitants and
among the military 12.5%
Washington's response
Years ago the alarm sounded, more precisely since 2003, when the
offices of senior managers started to get early reports showing this
disturbing trend within the military. Since then, the link was revealed
between increased suicides and the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Washington responded by choosing the path of mental health treatment.
In 2004, the VA approved the Comprehensive Strategic Mental Health Plan
in order to reduce the number of soldiers who decided to end their
lives. The Department continued incorporating mental health specialists
being provided and today have 20,000 specialists, including doctors and
assistants.
Since July 2007, a hotline was installed, aimed at veterans with
suicidal intentions with experts ready to provide immediate help, if
only by phone. The number of hope is
1-800-273-8255, option 1. As
expressed by Dr. Janet Kemp, the anti-suicide program coordinator for
the Veterans' Department, there are more than 10,000 phone calls every
month to this phone.
Up until now, it has been credited with saving 7,000 lives. And since
July 2008, the service has also incorporated its activities to social
networks through the creation of an open chat in a specific section of
the DVA website: depressed soldiers or their friends and acquaintances
can chat anonymously, alert about cases and request assistance.
The profile of the suicide
There is an extensive network of medical centers in the Department of
Veterans Affairs. This year, the army center in Denver received $17
million to launch, along with Florida State University, the creation of
a center for research on suicide in the military. The goal is to draw
as accurate a profile as possible of the soldier at risk, so that they
can be served immediately. It is already known who the potential
victims are: likely to be male, very young between 18 and 29, boys who
do not yet have a life project in which to return to upon going home
from the war.
The return is the detonater: the trauma they experience during the
conflict ignites upon having faced their new realities. Then the
soldier is alone, without a support group and ends up being a prisoner
of his own demons, flanked by alcohol and drugs. But the mental
problems that have plagued many veterans have been exacerbated by the
economic crisis, joblessness and the loss of their homes.
For these reasons the U.S. military is trying to build a support
network designed to accommodate a soldier upon his return from the
mission. Its importance is very familiar and explained in simple terms.
Eric Shinseki, a hero of Vietnam and now head of DVA: "You can heal and
stitch up the wounds of the body, but the spirit does not have the same
solution."