Posted on Oct 4, 2015

Preparing a presentation on the prevention of suicide among veterans. Any suggestions?

SrA Marc Haynes

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I have recently returned back to school. One of our assignments is an impact presentation in front of my professors and peers. I have picked veteran suicides. I am looking for thoughts, research articles, treatments and input on the subject. Please post or email any ideas which you think would be beneficial to this project. Thank you~Marc

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Posted 9 y ago

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PVT Robert Gresham

Edited 9 y ago

Posted 9 y ago

SrA Marc Haynes On average, 22 Veterans commit suicide every day. The reasons include, but are not limited to: PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, and family problems. Many of these causatives are often just lumped together under the term PTSD.

But many Veterans seem to also share a deeper, darker, psychological pain. Without treatment, this pain can be every bit as destructive as physical injuries.

Disabled Vets are at a special risk, as their disabilities often include chronic pain, and with the VA's newest initiative to take all non-terminal Veterans off of opioid pain medication, with no replacement medication being provided to help with the pain, I fear that the problem will soon grow even farther.

I would recommend the three following sites for information and further links:

http://www.veteransandptsd.com/PTSD-statistics.html

https://www.facebook.com/Goal-Zero-VS [login to see] 93647/timeline/

Suicide Risk and Risk of Death Among Recent Veterans - Public Health

This page includes an infographic that displays data found from a study of Veterans who served during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The study found that both deployed and non-deployed Veterans had a significantly higher risk of suicide compared to the U.S. general population.

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PVT Robert Gresham

9 y

CSM Howard Loomis With all due respect, just where are you getting your data from? If it is only from one source (your own book?) then I would encourage you NOT to spread that singular opinion as if it were all the facts. Due to my research, and experience, working with suicide endangered Veterans, in short, I believe your assertion to be in error. Please check the following sources:

http://www.hsrd.research.va.gov/news/feature/suicide.cfm

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-veteran-suicide-20150115-story.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dustin-demoss/veteran-suicide-rate_b_6417182.html

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/11/3150531/young-male-veterans-more-likely-commit-suicide/

Detailed study confirms high suicide rate among recent veterans

Recent veterans have committed suicide at a much higher rate than people who never served in the military, according to a new analysis that provides the most thorough accounting so far of the problem.

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PVT Robert Gresham

9 y

CSM Howard Loomis - Since you didn't bother to explain it, I assume that you gave me the thumbs down because you are a bad sport. That's fine. I just kind of expect more from the average "published" CSM on RP..... Guess there are always exceptions. I hope you sell lots of your books though.

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Posted 9 y ago

Letting veterans know that people care is important. Also important is to make them aware of resources available in their community. Many vets don't know what's available, and are afraid to ask for help from official channels for a whole host of reasons...