tagged w/ Army Suicides
-
Soldiers killed themselves at the rate of one per day in June making it the worst month on record for Army suicides, the service said Thursday.
There were 32 confirmed or suspected suicides among soldiers in June, including 21 among active-duty troops and 11 among National Guard or Reserve forces, according to Army statistics.
Seven soldiers killed themselves while in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan in June, according to the statistics. Of the total suicides, 22 soldiers had been in combat, including 10 who had deployed two to four times.
"The hypothesis is the same that many have heard me say before: continued stress on the force, said Army Col. Christopher Philbrick, director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force. He pointed out that the Army has been fighting for nine years in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last year was the Army's worst for suicides with 244 confirmed or suspected cases.
The increase was a setback for the service, which has been pushing troops to seek counseling. Through May of this year, the Army had seen a decline in suicides among active-duty soldiers this year compared with the same period in 2009.
Philbrick expressed frustration over the June deaths. "Because we believe that the programs, policies, procedures ... are having a positive impact across the entire force. The help is there."
A leading military suicide researcher says changing a culture that views psychological illness as a weakness takes time.
"I would expect it to be years," said David Rudd, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
The mounting stress on an Army facing renewed deployments and combat in Afghanistan is also a factor, Rudd said. "That's not a challenge they (Army leaders) control. It's a challenge that the president and Congress controls," he said.
cont.Soldiers killed themselves at the rate of one per day in June making it the worst... more
-
-
-
This chart does not note "attempted suicides". Usually attempted suicides far surpass recorded deaths that are a result of suicide. Name the Director of Veteran Affairs that revealed that there were over 1,000 recorded attempted suicides every month by Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans in the U.S.? Hint: He was the last person to fill that position and be fired... The only Director of Veterans Affairs ever fired? "Nah! Cause America cares for It's veterans and appreciates people trying to help them recover from the scars of victory in the battle for freedom. We love veterans, we couldn't have war without them, thanks kids. With kids always dieing for us we will never run out of oil, and if we do we can just drill their blood from the ground by then. True Patriotism!"
http://militaryhealthmatters.pbworks.com/f/army%20suicide%20rates.pngThis chart does not note "attempted suicides". Usually attempted suicides... more
-
-
Is the U.S. population convinced "winning" war is worth the damage it does to the kids it contracts as soldiers? So, isn't the U.S. a greater threat to itself than any "terrorist" organization? Touting the highest kill rate of U.S. soldiers than any other force. But are "just" wars different and do they give "meaning" to the deaths of the children we hide in soldiers uniforms and have kill whole families for "the cause"/"the nation"?
http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/01/30/GR2008013003050.gifIs the U.S. population convinced "winning" war is worth the damage it does... more
-
-
"But a five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling rate of suicide, what some call a hidden epidemic, Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian reports exclusively."
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Suicide_rates_map-fr.png&imgrefurl=http://natatat.wordpress.com/category/death/suicide/&usg=__TwVMpTBYARJHutsKSprU2_6Jo0M=&h=438&w=861&sz=102&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=uqAG0WwadWekDM:&tbnh=74&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmilitary%2Bsuicide%2Brates%26gbv%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG"But a five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling... more
-
-
"The army says it has confirmed that 115 active-duty soldiers committed suicide last year, with two more investigations still pending. That is a rate of nearly 19 per 100,000 soldiers. The rate was just under 10 per 100,000 in 2002, before the Iraq invasion, and has been rising steadily, except for one year, ever since. The rates for the last two years are the highest since record keeping began in 1980."...
[See Group: U.S. Military Suicides-"US Army Suicide Rate Continues to Rise-05/28/08", for excerpt]
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Suicide_rates_map-fr.png"The army says it has confirmed that 115 active-duty soldiers committed suicide... more
-
-
The U.S. Army reported Thursday that the suicide rate among its soldiers continued to rise last year, and is now nearly double the rate recorded before the invasion of Iraq. But they say last year's increase was not as sharp as the two previous years. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.
The army says it has confirmed that 115 active-duty soldiers committed suicide last year, with two more investigations still pending. That is a rate of nearly 19 per 100,000 soldiers. The rate was just under 10 per 100,000 in 2002, before the Iraq invasion, and has been rising steadily, except for one year, ever since. The rates for the last two years are the highest since record keeping began in 1980.
Army officials say the military suicide rate is still lower than the rate for people of similar age and education level in the rest of American society. But they say it is too high because the Army should be able to provide mental health care and other support to its troops.
Officials say personal issues such as relationship problems, trouble at work and legal or financial difficulty are among the main causes of suicide in the military, just like among the civilian population.
But Colonel Elspeth Ritchie, a psychiatrist in the Army Surgeon General's office, acknowledges that the stress of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is also part of the reason for the rising suicide rate in the Army.
"We see a lot of things that are going on in the war which do contribute," said Colonel Ritchie. "Mainly is the long-time and multiple deployments away from home, the exposure to really terrifying and horrifying things, the easy availability of loaded weapons and a force that's very, very busy right now. And so all of those together, we think, are part of what may contribute, especially if somebody is having difficulties already."The U.S. Army reported Thursday that the suicide rate among its soldiers continued to... more
-
