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From the group Battle in Distress, a military suicide prevention group released this video series in response to rapidly rising active duty and veteran suicide rates in the United States. With the 2012 numbers showing that an active duty US service member committed suicide every 25 hours.




He really gets to the meat in video three about the military/veteran mindset but the first two videos identify a serious issue with Veterans and active duty, and the issue with how we're addressing suicide and crisis problems in the returning military population. Specifically we're focusing on crisis care instead of treating the casualties before they're hitting the flatline. These men and women are walking wounded and they are not getting the help they need. I know there's a fair amount of military on this website and in the wargaming community at large, and BID is the type of thing where you need to spread the word, and where a conversation needs to be had, and quickly.

I've always thought it sad that a nation that spends $600 billion on defence every year, doesn't increase spending on helping veterans get back on their feet if they've had a traumatic experience in a war zone, or need help integrating back into society. I watched a BBC documentary on this last year, and according to the reporter, the US spends more on pens, pencils, and staples, than it does on supporting soldiers with mental health problems.

Doesn't America have a problem dealing with mental health as a nation? (Not saying you're all mental, but that there is little infrastructure to help those with mental health problems)

In my personal experiences with the US mental health system we're pretty big on treating symptoms as opposed to treating problems here. I got diagnosed, handed a bottle of pills and kicked out the door to cope on my own, the pills didn't help much, once I ditched them I felt significantly better.

Similar issues with mental health services since then, the VA checked me out, said "Yep you have issues" (not PTSD mind) and said I could apply for help to be diagnosed AGAIN, and potentially get some help (probably just meds) if I applied for VA health services, and went through a fair amount of paperwork and a massive dog and pony show. I mean I'm doing it any way for some general health issues not the psych mess but I can understand some vets walking away from that, especially from that guys who don't want help in the first place. I had to basically be ordered apply for my VA benefits.

Our backlog in processing applications isn't helping the situation any at all either.

When I seen the title I was wondering if the government were skewing the stats to hide the problem by describing the deaths as work related (similar to Fort Hood)

As someone who never served it always struck me as a little obscene that veterans who were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country were treated so badly. Especially now with cuts and reductions to their support services after they leave the service.

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
Especially now with cuts and reductions to their support services after they leave the service.

Well, we really seen our services cut. Even the sequester isn't going to affect us for quite a while. We just never recieved the needed funding to grow and prepare to be ready for the increase in veterans we would recieve. My personal wishful thinking would be that any authorization for military force should automatically include additional funding for the VA system. It takes a good year to create a position, hire the people, train them, and have the new people in place to take care of veterans. By the time we get more resources we are already behind the ball way to much IMO.

 d-usa wrote:
Well, we really seen our services cut. Even the sequester isn't going to affect us for quite a while. We just never recieved the needed funding to grow and prepare to be ready for the increase in veterans we would recieve. My personal wishful thinking would be that any authorization for military force should automatically include additional funding for the VA system. It takes a good year to create a position, hire the people, train them, and have the new people in place to take care of veterans. By the time we get more resources we are already behind the ball way to much IMO.

That sounds like far too sensible a proposition for any government to consider sadly.

The american military doesn't have the prestige it had a century ago... Most of the world thinks Americans are douches because of what our military does and most of the people in America think the military is a sham to launder tax dollars. What happens when people begin to hate the system they have signed up to perpetuate and they feel they have no other options?
Suicide
I seriously feel it's just a method to trick uneducated lower/middle class people (and their families) to buy into nationalism. We spend more on our military than the next ten nations combined, and 8 are our allies, and we give military aid to another...

But yes I agree, there is no reason a larger chunk of the spending couldnt go to veterans with mental illness, PTSD, unemployment, etc...

Why not cut the aid that we give to Pakistan and put that straight into the VA?