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Suicide rate in the military
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Sep. 5th, 2008 | 06:46 am
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The suicide rate for soldiers in the military are on the rise, exceeding the pace of the all time high created last year, and for the first time ever since the Vietnam war the rate of the general population.
Ninety- three us soldiers had killed themselves through the end of August. A third of those case are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office.
Last year in 2007 115 had committed suicide.
Failed relationships, legal and financial troubles, and the high stress of wartime operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are the leading factors linked to the suicides, Army officials said.
The officials voiced concern that an array of Army programs aimed at suicide prevention has not checked a years-long rise in the suicide rate. Still, they said, the number of deaths probably would have climbed even more without such efforts.
The Army's suicide rate has increased from 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, when the Iraq war started, to 18.1 per 100,000 last year. Suicide attempts by soldiers have also increased since 2003, said Col. Eddie Stephens, deputy director for human resources under the Army's personnel division.
This year the death rate is likely to exceed that of a demographically similar segment of the U.S. population -- 19.5 per 100,000, Stephens said. According to service officials, the last time that occurred was in the late 1960s during the Vietnam War, when the United States had a draft Army that suffered from serious discipline problems.
Army prevention programs to this point have not trained soldiers adequately in what to do after they learn a comrade is in crisis, said Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, the Army's assistant surgeon general for force protection.
"If they're having a problem at home and we can keep a family together, reduce stress by sending a soldier home so he can take care of that problem, we're doing that," McBride said yesterday by video link from Iraq.
Ninety- three us soldiers had killed themselves through the end of August. A third of those case are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office.
Last year in 2007 115 had committed suicide.
Failed relationships, legal and financial troubles, and the high stress of wartime operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are the leading factors linked to the suicides, Army officials said.
The officials voiced concern that an array of Army programs aimed at suicide prevention has not checked a years-long rise in the suicide rate. Still, they said, the number of deaths probably would have climbed even more without such efforts.
The Army's suicide rate has increased from 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, when the Iraq war started, to 18.1 per 100,000 last year. Suicide attempts by soldiers have also increased since 2003, said Col. Eddie Stephens, deputy director for human resources under the Army's personnel division.
This year the death rate is likely to exceed that of a demographically similar segment of the U.S. population -- 19.5 per 100,000, Stephens said. According to service officials, the last time that occurred was in the late 1960s during the Vietnam War, when the United States had a draft Army that suffered from serious discipline problems.
Army prevention programs to this point have not trained soldiers adequately in what to do after they learn a comrade is in crisis, said Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, the Army's assistant surgeon general for force protection.
"If they're having a problem at home and we can keep a family together, reduce stress by sending a soldier home so he can take care of that problem, we're doing that," McBride said yesterday by video link from Iraq.
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