Air Force News, news from Iraq - Air Force Times

Suicide rates remain high

The suicide rates in all four services last year were higher than the national civilian average, and significantly higher in the Army and Marines, which saw overall increases.

And calls by service members and veterans to a Department of Veterans Affairs hot line indicate the problem is potentially broader than illustrated by the statistics provided March 18 at a Senate Armed Services military personnel subcommittee hearing.

The second-ranking officer in each service told lawmakers they are working hard to fix the problems — devoting more senior leadership attention, instituting more and better training, attacking the stigma, hiring more mental health providers and working across agency lines to keep an eye on and fund care for at-risk troops who transition back to civilian life.

All agreed that a combination of those initiatives will be needed to tackle the problem.

“The reality is there is no simple solution,” said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, a sentiment echoed by his service counterparts. “It is going to require a multidisciplinary approach and team effort at every level of command and across all Army components, all services and jurisdictions, as well as partners out of our organization.”

The specific steps range from implementing or strengthening “battle buddy” programs to ensure troops look out for each other; embedding, as the Marines have done, more mental health professionals with units; improving the “handoff” from the war zone to providers back home; and ensuring better continuity of care when troops transition from military to VA care, officials said.

The Air Force lost 38 airmen to suicide in 2008, a rate of 11.5 suicides per 100,000 airmen. The average over the past five years — since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom — was 11 deaths per 100,000 annually. That is lower than a decade before. From 1987 to 1996, there was an average of 13.5 suicides for every 100,000 airmen. Of the airmen lost in 2008, 95 percent were men and 89 percent were enlisted.

In a report to Congress, Craig Duehring, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower, said, “there does not appear to be a strong correlation between deployments and suicide.” A check of deployment records found that from 2003 to 2008, only 39 Air Force suicide victims had deployed in the previous 12 months. Another 150 had never deployed.

A more common indicator of risk was seeking mental health counseling for issues ranging from alcohol abuse to marriage counseling, Duehring’s report said. Fifty-five percent of airmen who killed themselves had attended counseling sessions.

In 2008, the Army reported 140 confirmed or suspected suicides. That’s 20.2 suicides per 100,000 troops — an all-time high that is nearly twice the national average of 11 suicides per 100,000.

The Navy reported 41 suicides in 2008, a rate of 11.6 per 100,000. The Marine Corps lost 41 Marines last year to confirmed or suspected suicides — up from 25 two years earlier — a rate of 19 per 100,000.

More ominously, 780 callers to a national VA suicide prevention hot line in fiscal 2008 identified themselves as active-duty troops, said Kathryn Power, director of the Center for Mental Health Services in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Since Oct. 1, an average of three hot line callers per day have identified themselves as being on active duty, Power said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said that indicates many conflicted troops continue to feel a sense of stigma over reporting suicidal thoughts to superiors or military mental health officials.

“When you’ve got this many people feeling they can’t talk to someone within the system, that’s a problem,” Graham said.

The vice chiefs said they are well aware.

“We must eliminate the perceived stigma, shame and dishonor of asking for help,” said Adm. Patrick Walsh, vice chief of naval operations. “This is not simply an issue isolated to the medical community to recognize and resolve. Commands have a critical role to play in setting a supportive climate for those who need to admit their struggle and seek assistance.”

Such efforts should include keeping an eye on those closest to the suicide victim, said Brian Altman, acting chief operating officer for Suicide Prevention Action Network USA, a Washington-based public policy and advocacy group.

“We know that survivors of suicide who have lost a loved one, or survivors in terms of a battle buddy or someone else in their unit, are then more at risk for suicide themselves,” Altman said.

Nationally, the highest suicide rate belongs to Caucasian men over age 80, which somewhat skews any direct comparison with the military rates, as Gen. James Amos, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, pointed out. But most troops do come from an age group that is heavily at risk; suicide is the second leading cause of death among Americans ages 18-24, according to Altman.

That’s reflected in Marine Corps statistics. Amos said the most likely Marine to die by suicide is a Caucasian male, 18 to 24 years old, between the ranks of private and sergeant. The most likely cause: a failed relationship with a woman.

The Army’s high suicide rate is attributable in large part to deployment stress, Chiarelli said.

The Marine Corps, which along with the Army has borne the brunt of high deployment and combat action in Iraq and Afghanistan, is not so sure.

“We have been concerned that one outcome of the stress from operational deployments might be increased suicides,” Amos said. “However, to date, we have not seen that hypothesis prove out.”

He noted that 68 percent of the Corps’ confirmed or suspected suicides in 2008 had a current or past deployment history to the two wars, “almost exactly the same as the percentage of all Marines with deployment experience” — 69 percent.

The Navy’s suicide rate has remained roughly steady over the past four years, but suicide ranks as the service’s third-leading cause of death, said Walsh, who added that Navy analyses also show a “weak correlation between suicide and deployment history.”

Gen. William Fraser, Air Force vice chief, said he also has not seen a link between deployment stress and the service’s suicide rate. He said that including the 1990s-era Operation Southern Watch patrols over Iraq, the Air Force has deployed steadily for 18 years, increasing over the past four years — yet the suicide rate has fallen.

Fraser attributes that in part to his service’s suicide prevention program, initiated in 1996 and considered a national model among evidence-based programs, he said.

———

Staff writer Bruce Rolfsen contributed to this story.