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Posted in these groups: 
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Suicide
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Suicide
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 12
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CPT Bruce Rodgers Thanks for raising this issue.
I was curious about the number of suicides and why 1999 was the benchmark for combat deaths versus 1965 to include Vietnam. I looked through a VA study withe hyperlink below. One of the conclusions in that 2012 study which looked at all suicides since some states do not list veteran status on death certificates further research was required and some extrapolation of the results.
To date in 2012, data from 1999 though 2009 from twenty-one (21) states have been cleaned and entered into a single integrated file containing information on more than 147,000 suicides and
27,062 reported Veterans.
Based on the number 128,480 you cited either the VA study group was able to work through the other 29 states were cleaned or some other parallel study must have been conducted.
In any event 128,480 is a huge number of veteran suicides and is 100,000 higher than what the VA had determined by the 2012 study.
One of the conclusions in that is that the majority of male veteran suicides are age 50 or older.
Male Veterans who die by suicide are older than non-Veteran males who die by suicide.
The age distribution of Veteran and non-Veteran women who have died from suicide is similar.
http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/suicide-data-report-2012-final.pdf
I was curious about the number of suicides and why 1999 was the benchmark for combat deaths versus 1965 to include Vietnam. I looked through a VA study withe hyperlink below. One of the conclusions in that 2012 study which looked at all suicides since some states do not list veteran status on death certificates further research was required and some extrapolation of the results.
To date in 2012, data from 1999 though 2009 from twenty-one (21) states have been cleaned and entered into a single integrated file containing information on more than 147,000 suicides and
27,062 reported Veterans.
Based on the number 128,480 you cited either the VA study group was able to work through the other 29 states were cleaned or some other parallel study must have been conducted.
In any event 128,480 is a huge number of veteran suicides and is 100,000 higher than what the VA had determined by the 2012 study.
One of the conclusions in that is that the majority of male veteran suicides are age 50 or older.
Male Veterans who die by suicide are older than non-Veteran males who die by suicide.
The age distribution of Veteran and non-Veteran women who have died from suicide is similar.
http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/suicide-data-report-2012-final.pdf
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CPT Bruce Rodgers
I don't know why but specific veteran data was not collected until 1999 I hope that helps LTC Stephen F.
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LTC Stephen F.
I know that the VA seems to have started this initiative to track veteran suicides and used that as the start point CPT Bruce Rodgers. I suspect one of the major issues is that since many states did not have veteran status on death certificates it would have been challenging and a violation of the privacy act probably to use military service numbers correlated to SSNs to determine which of the suicides served in the military..
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Cpl Jeff N.
I think the 128,000 suicides by veterans is reached by taking 22 per day times the number of days since 1999 (that gets you close).The 22 veteran suicides per day has been challenged and seem grossly overstated based upon actual date from the VA. You can argue the VA data is bad but that is where the 22 per day number came from too.
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The problem is not being overlooked, many are looking at it. And many are misrepresenting it.
About 72% of veterans are at least 50. It is not surprising, then, that the VA found that people in this age group account for 69% of veteran suicides — or more than 15 of the 22 per day.
Many times when this is talked about it is stated to make it sound like its all the younger Iraq and Afghanistan vets.... Thankfully it's not.
Still it's well above the civilian numbers and needs special attention.
About 72% of veterans are at least 50. It is not surprising, then, that the VA found that people in this age group account for 69% of veteran suicides — or more than 15 of the 22 per day.
Many times when this is talked about it is stated to make it sound like its all the younger Iraq and Afghanistan vets.... Thankfully it's not.
Still it's well above the civilian numbers and needs special attention.
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I wish they will study the demographics of the suicides to include chemical dependency and homelessness.
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Curt Hawley
Or correlation with Divorce rates? I would not be surprised if relationship / or lack thereof issues due to being a Veteran are tied to many suicides.
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