"Stunning": CBS News Discovers "Hidden Epidemic" of Military Suicides

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/13/stunning-cbs-news-disc_n_72417.html

"Stunning": CBS News Discovers "Hidden Epidemic" of Military Suicides

Huffington Post | Rachel Sklar | November 13, 2007 11:23 AM


Tonight CBS will air the first of a two-part series on the "hidden epidemic" of military suicides, revealing numbers that CBS calls "stunning." The report examines data on the suicide rate amongst veterans once they return home, which indicates a serious mental health issue — and a hidden mortality rate.

"We first started researching military suicides because it had never been done before," said Armen Keteyian, CBS News' chief investigative correspondent in a statement forwarded by CBS News. "But when all the data was collected, we were astonished. I had no idea how much of an epidemic CBS uncovered. We expect this to be a wake up call."

Keteyian previewed the segment on the "CBS Early Show" today, saying that the CBS five-month study found that vets were "more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 as non-vets." Chillingly, though the Veterans Affairs Department estimates that "some 5,000 ex-servicemen and women will commit suicide this year,' that's a lowball estimate. Said Keteyian: "Our numbers are much higher than that, overall."

According to a CBS spokesperson, the report represents the first time an actual count of veteran suicides at home has been tallied, as opposed to estimates. "We also have number from the DOD of active duty suicides that we believed have never been reported before dating back to 1995," said the spokesperson. "Many believe, including the family members, that they VA hasn't done a true nationwide count of the numbers (which are stunning) because they just don't want to know." This echoes findings in a CBS report on the matter back in January 2004, which focused on soldier suicides during deployment but which also noted that the Pentagon did not count post-release suicides, and that a pre-Iraq war army study had predicted "an impending soldier-suicide crisis" (which, according to critics, was "largely ignored").

The two-part series will focus tonight on the numbers, and tomorrow on how the Dept. of Veterans Affairs is handling this problem (our guess, based on the above: Not well). According to CBS, tonight's segment runs 5 minutes — long for a newscast (though tonight is a single-sponsor broadcast (Pfizer) which will definitely save a few minutes).

Military suicides have been in the news recently owing to the passage last month of the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act (HR. 327), named for 22-year-old Army Reservist Joshua Omvig who commited suicide a few months after his return from Iraq. The bill "directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop and implement a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans," by virtue of better screening of veteran patients for mental health, tracking of veterans, better suicide prevention training for VA staff (including designating one suicide-specific counselor at each facility), and a 24-hour mental-health care, including a hotline. The legislation also requires the VA to report back on "status, timeline and costs for complete implementation within 2 years" within 90 days (i.e. by late January). Hopefully they can reverse the trend. If not, hopefully CBS will still be there.

[spanone]

1. k&r

[dbt]

2. SOMEBODY needs to burn in HELL for this! n/t

[babylonsister]

3. It being exposed is a good start, I think. nt

[aquart]

4. I don't wanna wait that long.

[rubberducky]

5. What could be compelling these poor souls to take thier own lives?

My heart aches for them and thier families. Thier pain must go soul deep. Edit to add K&R

[hedgehog]

6. Is this a case of soldiers who can't bear to live with their memories

(as my husband speculates) or of people returning to their civilian lives to find that their families or finances have been permanently damaged? It's probably a combination, but i have to wonder how many have some back to d=find a civilian job is gone or the mortgage is being foreclosed.

[Cybergata]

9. What I would find more interesting is some real . . .

statistics about veteran suicides after all wars. At least after WWII, vets were treated decently, but that isn't so for most of the other. I would bet that it isn't unusual for returning veteran's suicide rates for all wars to be higher than the rest of the population. I wouldn't be surprised to see if it was even higher for WWI.

Things like families relations being damaged or mortgage foreclosure can be and likely is caused by being off fighting a war, so isn't it really the war that is to be blamed?

[hedgehog]

11. I had two uncles who came home after WWII and engaged in slow motion

suicide (alcoholism) for the next 40 years.

[Cybergata]

12. My father had nightmares his entire life after WWII.

Worse was one of my Junior High teachers who had been on the Bataan Death March. He was a brilliant and beautiful man who had become a shell of himself. I can't even imagine the horror he lived through!

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. do not forget this

not just the warriors suffer.

My parents ran from stalin during WWII, suffered in DP camps in germany, and eventually made their way and met in Chicago. To this day, my father won't eat onions or tomatoes, given that for more than a year, all they had was rotting, spoiled versions of them. They can't talk about the cycle of russian missile batteries, the kind that screamed because so many were going off, one after another, and how they exploded near them. They can't talk about trying to avoid the Nazis, who were just as deadly. They refuse to describe the joy being stopped by US GIs, shell-shocked, with no belongings, no food, no nothing. those were their pre- teen years, and they managed to survive, unlike many others. My childhood was in Eden, in comparison.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. I say "bullshit" to this.

there have been suicide threads HERE about former military going back several years. And PTSD, Depression, personal stories, family problems, divorce, and more all related to this insane occupation.

"never been done"? oh fuck me a new one. The vets orgs have tallies, not estimates. The VAs have tallies, although the admin makes their numbers hidden.
No, the only people who are NOT aware of the serious mental illness problems, PTSD, suicide, marital violence, and self-destructive behavior that exists in our new vets can be summed up in this little list:

George Bush
Condi Rice
Dick Cheney
the vast majority of the MSM, and every conservative radio talking head

Admirals, generals, retired officers have been talking about it, BUT GET NO DAMNED COVERAGE. Vet MDs raise it all the time, but they can't get increased aid or support for treatment. Even we blogs have been discussing it.

I am glad that someone in the vast wasteland of MSM finally got the message, though.

dear babylon, please note that bullshit is NOT directed to you. I am glad you posted this, and just as glad that they are running it.

[babylonsister]

13. I get where you're coming from. The msm has been complicit in their

silence up until now; I too have read the stories. But I'm also glad they're finally running with this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Hold it CBS stumbled into some real news?

sorry about my cynicism with the major media

Hell, we've known 'bout this for a while

That stubbed toe must hurt

[fascisthunter]

10. It's Revelations Like This That Make Me Despise War Supporters

and capitulators who go along to get along.

To them all I say:

You own this

[gratuitous]

15. Why is CBS "stunned"? Are they retarded or something?

This happens every war, every time. It's part of the "hidden" cost of war that never quite makes it onto the national account books. Sure, some bean counters total up the pay, and the equipment, and the bases and all that, and we arrive at a number for our expenditures, and everyone agrees (mostly) that it's a fuckin' waste, but what are you gonna do? Terror has to be fought.

What's not on the books is the long-term, continuing cost of the damage done to the folks who go to war and the families they come home to. Curiously, those snappy recruiting brochures don't feature a picture of some guy silently sitting alone in a dark room with a cigarette between his fingers. Or worse.