Suicide rates among active duty troops, spouses and dependents have increased since 2011

Just heard on the Radio News Today that Suicides are UP among Vets Again!

SGT James Murphy - Indeed very sadly and reducing the high rates is failing as per my own clinical research on combat trauma.
Rich

SSgt Richard Kensinger - I think a great deal of the problem stems from isolationism which is the result from all of us spending too much time txting and not enough face time with each other.

This is a problem that will continue to grow until we stop using civilian mental health models on service members. We train individuals to become members of a team and to achieve a mission at any cost and if the mission becomes suicide, people use those same skills to achieve that mission. A civilian that has never been through military training does not have that same determination. Those that do seek help, we take away everything, their clothes, their privacy, and lock them up away from their team. When I was nursing supervisor at. Ft Bliss, I had to round on the behavioral unit. I think correctional inmates have more rights and no way would I volunteer for that. When I was growing up, suicide was selfish and wrong, and that stigma has largely been removed. There is no I in TEAM or ARMY and when a soldier presents having a bad day, we need to go back to that if you harm yourself you are harming and hurting your buddies. Your pain is gone but your team's pain remains. I have felt this way for years and got to experience it last year when a leader in the Army Nurse Corps took her life. If Krista had understood what her decision would do to her children, her husband, and those that served in the Nurse Corps with her she would have never done it. We cannot say harse words anymore and soldiers that want to kill themselves are very different than our civilian counterparts. We need to develop medicine for service members just like we have for trauma cases in combat.
Sorry Sir for the rant but the more senior leaders I can get looking at suicide from a different angle then maybe we can make a change.

MAJ Byron Oyler - In actuality, many clinicians at our local VAC have never served in the military and do not understand military culture. And 3 of the psychiatrists are of middle eastern descent. So this is a concern for combatants who fought in the Middle East.
Rich