Our Nation's Veterans
Our soldiers pay a high price for their service. Aside from the challenges of separation from family and their homes, they face the challenges of operating in hostile environments where the stress of daily duty and operating on the front lines takes a heavy toll. During World War II and the Korean War our soldiers primarily fought in units and then traveled home on ships with their buddies. This facilitated decompressing and helped many overcome the horrors of fighting. Today, soldiers return to the United States with little time to decompress and the expectation to immediately adapt to life at home with little transition time. From our population of Vietnam veterans and those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan currently 22 veterans each day take their own lives—that translates to one death every 65 minutes! [1] We know from studies that suffering from PTS are often a direct link to suicide. Therefore, by helping veterans heal from their PTS we can directly reduce the number of suicides.
The Department of Defense releases a Quarterly Suicide Report (QSR) which summarizes confirmed suicide counts for all services and components. For the third quarter of 2015 there were 72 suicides among service members in the active component, 38 suicides among reservists and 32 suicides for National Guardsmen. The QSR is available HERE
Additional suicide prevention information is available on the Defense Suicide Prevention Office website
Additional suicide prevention information is available on the Defense Suicide Prevention Office website