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This story is about suicide. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
A group of veterans aiming to reduce the number of veteran suicides has published a study showing that the suicide rate among veterans is more than 30% higher than that reported by the Department of Veterans Affairs and that the States underreport veteran deaths at a combined error rate of 25%.
A study dubbed Operation Deep Dive by veterans group America’s Warrior Partnership showed a 37% higher suicide rate among former military personnel than that reported by VA from 2014 to 2018.
“The difference in data is likely due to undercounting of FSM (former military) deaths and the greater specificity of demographics, military experience, and deceased death details available for Operation Deep. Dive,” the study explains.
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US soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan
(Getty Pictures)
The more specific criteria for the methodology of this study were collected from two datasets, one from an eight-state collection and the other from the Department of Defense.
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The state dataset was collected in Alabama, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, and Oregon from 2014 to 2018. Information used included demographics such as social security numbers, gender, age, marital status, race, state-registered veteran status, date of death, manner of death, and other factors.
The Department of Defense dataset contained an active duty military personnel file, a personnel transaction file, and a reserve component data file.
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American flags were planted on a grassy area of the mall (14th St NW to Madison Drive NW) each of them represents a veteran or military member who died by suicide
(Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“If these eight states collectively accounted for the national rate, the combined death rate would be at least 44 FSM per day, which is 2.4 times higher than the VA suicide rate,” the study states.
“What we’ve found across the country with the states is that they underestimate the number of veteran deaths by about 18%, which means that someone who served in the military is not marked as having served in the military 18% of the time,” said Jim Lorraine, president. of America’s Warrior Partnership and 22-year U.S. Air Force veteran, Fox News Digital told Fox News Digital. “Conversely, communities count people who have never served in the military 7% of the time, which is a combined error rate of 25%.”
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The study also found that the likelihood of a veteran committing suicide decreases by 2% for each year a veteran has served, and those who have served in the military for less than three years are most at risk. of suicide.
Additionally, veterans who were demoted while serving had a 56% increase in their odds of dying by suicide.
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Lorraine told Fox News Digital that he hopes the Department of Veterans Affairs will analyze the data at a more local level and incorporate more data related to self-harm mortality and overdose deaths, both accidental and intentional.
“Overdose and suicide rates among those serving in the military are 2 to 3 times higher than in the civilian population,” Lorraine said. “We don’t know why and we need to understand why veterans are killing themselves like this.”
A staggering 30,177 active U.S. service members and veterans involved in post-9/11 wars are estimated to have died by suicide — a figure at least four times higher than the 7,057 service members killed in action during that time, a research paper published determined last year.
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Santa Fe, USA – November 11, 2010: A Vietnam veteran holds an American flag at a Veterans Day memorial in Santa Fe, NM, backdrop by deep blue sky.
(Stock)
“The goal of the VA National Suicide Prevention Report is to count every veteran suicide so that we can prevent every veteran suicide,” the Department of Veterans Affairs told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Ending veteran suicide and saving lives is our top clinical priority at VA, and we take every step possible to ensure that our veteran suicide data is accurate, because the first step to solving this problem is to understand it.”
The statement continued, “Our methodology for creating this report is well-established and consistent, based on verified CDC and DoD data, and meets the quality and standards of a peer-reviewed publication. In the interest With full transparency, we publish annual reports detailing how we reach the conclusions of the annual report on suicide prevention. The bottom line is this: one veteran suicide is one suicide too many, and VA will continue to accurately measure the veteran suicide so we can end veteran suicide.”
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Lorraine told Fox News Digital that he hopes to work with the VA on ways to better track and analyze data sets across the country and fill in the gaps.
“I think if we stick together we can do better,” Lorraine said. “We can always do better to prevent suicide and death from self-harm. I would like the VA to participate in our study and share data, then work with us on it and identify better prevention measures. We don’t see the study as America’s Warrior Partnership, we see the study as our nation and it belongs to our people, it belongs to the states, it belongs to the VA, we want to bring everyone to the table. ”