Suicide Among Veterans

In the “A Lifeline for Troubled Veterans” (2017), The Editorial Board insists that “ the government needs to do a lot more to prevent veteran suicides and homelessness”(2). The board relays this information to the reader through factual information regarding the government's knowing of this issue (“the government does not know what percentage of these veterans have acute mental health problems”(2)) and have not acknowledged their presence. He has gone through this trouble of making he thoughts known in order to finally get to help the veterans with only less than honorable discharges “to seek care at a V.A. Emergency room or by calling the Veterans Crisis Line”(2) from the government. The boards main purpose of writing this was to spread

Veteran suicide among our soldiers is a distressing and tragic reality. Per the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/Suicide-Data-Report-2012-final.pdf a staggering 22 veterans take their own lives each day. That's a suicide every 65 minutes. This is a heartbreaking truth that has not adequately received the attention it deserves from the civilian world. To add insult to injury http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-0202-veteran-suicide-20150402-story.html tells us that there are two key high-risk groups of soldiers who typically are ineligible for psychiatric care: those forced out of the military for misconduct and those who enlisted but were quickly discharged for other problems. In each of those groups, an average of 46 of every 100,000 former service members committed suicide each

A freedom I enjoy because of veterans sacrifice is freedom of speech. With freedom of speech you can basically say whatever you want when you want it. If you don't like a person running for a place in office or something, you are allowed to say you don't like them, without getting in trouble. If you want to protest something you are also able to do so. You can go out into the streets or on social media and protest whatever you want with freedom of speech. Your allowed to voice your opinion. People in the army go out of the country and risk their lives everyday for us to have freedom of speech.

On February 12, 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act (Clay Hunt Act) that will work towards expanding and allowing for greater efficiency and coherence within The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) mental health services and suicide prevention programs. The Clay Hunt Act includes peer support and community outreach pilot programs, requirement of 3rd party evaluations, collaboration with non-profit mental health organizations, creation of a centralized interactive website for all mental health services, extended combat veteran eligibility and an incentive loan repayment program for psychiatrists. The Clay Hunt Act was named after a marine veteran who died by suicide in March 2011 after a long battle with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor’s guilt. Clay had extensive difficulty receiving adequate mental health services from the VA. He commented to his mother, “I’m a guinea pig for drugs. They’ll put me on one thing, I’ll have side effects, and then they put me on something else (iava.org).” The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and many other news organization have all run features on the struggle American Veterans have with accessing mental health services, including the VA’s lengthy wait times, staff shortage, and the sole focus on medication to treat mental health disorders. (……). Despite the VA’s current initiatives, the rates of suicide by veterans have continued to increase with the current

This is like a bomb waiting to go off: Family of veterans have to live with fear, hoping that their love one would recuperate, be happy, or simply a civilian again. The Veterans Affairs Department (VA) should put a better effort to better assist veterans, and their family with a better plan to reduce this preventable death. Many veterans find it difficult to admit, control, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), let alone reaching for help; when they do so, they are considered just another number at the VA. At any moment, a veteran?s sacrifice for this country should end

In today's society, freedom isn't something most people tend to notice. When an American hears the word “freedom”, what do they usually think about? For many people, it's probably something along the lines of a barbecue in the backyard on Memorial Day. But to others, it's so much more. There are many families who celebrate Memorial Day and Veterans Day at the cemetery. Their child made the ultimate sacrifice for this great nation and didn't get to make it home. Other families spend the holidays in the hospital with their kid who was shot defending the country. Some might would argue that “It was their prerogative to go join the military and get shot at”. But really, was it their fault? America loses so many brave and courageous soldiers on average. Not to mention the hundreds who commit suicide every year. These soldiers are committed to keeping our country safe everyday so normal citizens can have those backyard barbecues or what have you. But yet, so many people don't take the time to thank them for what they do. America is the most free country because the military is defending this amazing, beautiful country from the evils of the

The amount of combat soldiers who commit suicide is often shown an extreme expression of PTSD. {Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry}. Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers- coauthors of "The Human Cost of Welfare." has mentioned that " We'll give you enough for a reasonably comfortable life, but we won't help you find a job." {latimes.com} Unemployment for these brave men when coming home is also a big problem. It's not easy for these men to find a job after their deployment because people often seen the Veterans as

Freedom is not free. It is obtained for us by people we don’t know in countries far away. Veterans are the key to keeping our country safe. They were willing to give up their family, friends, security, and even their lives to fight for the rights of those they don’t know. By risking it all, veterans are able to be an inspiration to a whole country.

As a consequence of the stresses of war and inadequate job training, when they get out of the service many have fallen behind their contemporaries. If they are fortunate enough to become employed, many of them are unable to hold a job due to untreated PTSD and acquired addictions without services and counseling designed for them. These factors may place our returning veterans at a higher risk of suicide. In 2007, the US Army reported that there were 115 suicides among OIF/OEF veterans. This was the highest number of suicides reported since the Army started keeping track about 30 years ago. In general, the risk for suicide among these veterans was not higher than that found in the U.S. population (Tull). However, there are several programs and 24 hour suicide hotlines available for those that may contemplate committing suicide as an option.

Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out. Clearly, the military is going above and beyond to try and prevent further lives from being taken.

The answers to this question amazed me. I have found out that close to 17 veterans commit suicide daily and, over a year, that number adds up to over 6,000 suicides. I have also discovered that half of veterans with suicidal thoughts and tendencies do not seek help for their problems out of fear of being judged. Perhaps the most shocking statistic I found was that during the Vietnam War, the number of veterans' suicide greatly exceeded the number of deaths caused during combat. The two main information sources I used to answer this question are my expert interview and a GALE article titled Growing Public Health Crisis of Domestic Violence and Suicides by Returning Veterans. I asked my expert specifically about the statistics of veterans' suicide and she gave me a lot of insight on the issue. The GALE article contains a lot of statistics such as the daily number of veterans' suicide. My thoughts about the statistics of veterans' suicide are mainly about how shockingly high they are. I was surprised when I found out that 17 service men and women commit suicide every day. I was even more surprised when the article said that over 6,000 suicides occur every year and I calculated that number myself just to make sure. My findings on the statistics of veterans' suicide are both shocking and twistedly

Congress has responded to the public outcry for action in the face of unacceptable suicide rates and has passed multiple pieces of legislation aimed at correcting the problem. The 2007 Joshua Omvig Bill directed the VA to develop “data systems to increase understanding of suicide among Veterans and inform both the VA and other suicide prevention programs” (Veterans Affairs, 2012, p. 7). In 2015, President Obama signed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act into Law, requiring the VA to “make it easier for veterans to find mental health resources, do more to recruit and retain professionals” and to increase “accountability for the government programs serving them” (Baker, 2015, para. 2). This recent legislation tends to be

PTSD is a severe mental condition that several veterans are impacted by. These severe conditions cause these men and women who have experienced tragic episodes in their life to re-live that same horrific scene over and over again. Some cases in veterans result in suicide. Something can very well be done to help these veterans living with PTSD and lower the suicide numbers to keep our veterans living prosperous lives.

However, war does seem to be the major problem with veteran suicide, which is where PTSD comes from. To elaborate, men and woman go to war zones, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, or Pakistan, and fight with the Middle Eastern cultures. While doing so, these men and woman tend to fight for, not only Americas freedom, but also their lives and the lives around them. Therefore, on many occasions, these men and woman are forced to kill anyone that shows threat to America’s military members. Also, when in a firefight, those men and woman have to attempt to save the lives of the people around them from gunshot wounds, IED wounds, and many other attack defenses from the enemy of war. Therefore, war is the cause of PTSD, which seems to be the number one cause of veteran suicide.

Only six of the twenty use VA services (VA Suicide Prevention Program, 2016). Although six used VA services this does not necessarily mean the veteran is seeking mental health assistance. The issue of military and veteran suicide should be addressed as an issues of its own, the stigma of mental illness as a contributing