Top Admiral: Military Suicides Will Keep Rising

How much do we spend on psychological services for vets? Do we have enough VA hospitals and services to meet this tragic need head-on?

Oh, well, sh!t happens…
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And what does the good general suggest we actually do about this state of affairs?
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Click our heels twice and wish it to all go away?
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And what will he recommend if the Neocons have another wet dream and decide we need to “fix” Iran (again)?

Mark Thompson:
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You write

“ A recent independent report ordered by Congress found the Pentagon’s suicide prevention efforts inadequate.“

This is true.
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In fact, the report goes further, stating

“In this report, the Task Force members have presented their findings and best consensus recommendations for effective suicide prevention for Service Members within the DoD. We are confident that the recommendations will make a difference by strengthening the force through total fitness, thereby helping to prevent suicide.
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Action must follow this report, and the recommendations must be implemented with a sense of urgency if we are to address the worrisome trend of increasing suicide by members of the Armed Forces. This report is a call for more effective action.“

You also write

“It has become obvious that mere billions of taxpayer dollars can not really blunt war’s psychic trauma”

, and yet, amongst the report’s findings are these:

“Although there has been some expansion in the number of behavioral health providers in all of the Services, timely access to quality behavioral healthcare for Service Members continues to be a challenge.
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Much of the challenge can be attributed to the fact that DoD medical treatment facilities suffer from the same wholesale shortage of behavioral health care providers as found across America in the civilian sector.
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In addition, despite the expansion of non-clinical support services, adequate coordination is inconsistent among both the support services and among the providers. Furthermore, Service Members in the Reserve Components face additional challenges when they lose easy access to myriad installation-based support and healthcare services because the Service Members are generally not physically collocated with military installations.
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Service Members and their families are often unaware of the available resources for suicide-related problems. There is insufficient communication among clinical providers, support services personnel, and commanders, which impedes the delivery of effective care, continuity, and management of transitions. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is often misunderstood and over-interpreted, thus creating additional, self-induced obstacles to sharing information that may prevent suicide, especially for at-risk Service Members.
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In addition, the current DoD electronic medical documentation platforms do not allow easy and systematic tracking of the care provided to high-risk suicidal Service Members. “Suicide watch” is ungoverned, not standardized, and largely ineffective, and those conducting suicide watch are not trained.
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Furthermore, there is insufficient training of behavioral health, primary care and emergency medical personnel, as well as chaplains, on evidence-based assessment, management, and treatment services for Service Members with suicide-related behaviors. Due to the variety of numerous hotline services for crisis intervention, there is confusion as to which to utilize in what circumstances. Additionally, the quality of many hotline services is suspect…
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Strategic Initiatives:
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3.A. Ensure available and reliable access to high-quality behavioral healthcare.
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3.B. Leverage and coordinate military community-based services, as well as local civilian community services (especially with respect to the Reserve Component).
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3.C. Ensure continuity of behavioral healthcare, especially during times of transition, to ensure seamlessness of healthcare delivery and care management.
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3.D. Standardize effective crisis intervention services and hotlines.
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3.E. Ensure all “helping professionals” are trained in the competencies to deliver evidence-based care for the assessment, management, and treatment of suicidal behaviors.
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3.F. Develop effective postvention programs”

So, Mark Thompson, while your point certainly stands that “mere tax-payer dollars” are insufficient to deal with the consequences of apparently endless violent occupation of foreign peoples, it also seems as if the report reveals something else that’s equally as important from a policy and moral standpoint:
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The DoD’s failures with respect to service members’ behavioral health seem to mirror the failures of America’s health care system generally, in that an enormous sum of money is being wasted in inadequately addressing the urgent and inevitable needs of our people.
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“Mere billions of dollars” surely “can not really blunt war’s psychic trauma,” yes, but in the same way that “mere billions of dollars” can’t provide guaranteed access to First World health care for the civilian population (even though the US spends double the OECD average on health care), the proven inadequacy of current DoD methods and structures with respect to behavioral health care can’t really be solved with yet more funding, but must be addressed via a different, better system.
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We have yet to agree to establish such a different, better system in the United States, much as the DoD hasn’t been willing or able to establish an effective system of response to the ongoing tragedy of its members’ suicides. Everyone knows that “Action must follow,” and yet, two years after the “Change election,” our civilian leaders seem to be merely echoing the observations of Admiral Mullen, when he said “we’re going to see a significant increase in the challenges.”
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We owe it to our fine service people and to our fellow citizens whom these extraordinary men and women in uniform serve not to throw up our hands and declare “more money ain’t going to solve anything, it’s the nature of the things these folks confront.”
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That sort of response is not the report’s recommendations, and it shouldn’t be our conclusions, either.
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“This report is a call for more effective action,” write the authors.
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When it comes to the functioning of our health care system, our veterans’ care, and our government, that should be our call, too, shouldn’t it, Mark Thompson?

stuart,
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The simple fact is that deployment, family separation, killing and death is ALL that a number of these young men have known since graduation.
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Given our national policy of endless warfare at the moment, they don’t see any end to it (and no real job prospects on the outside as an alternative, should they decide to separate).
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How are we going to counsel them in any believable manner and convince them that this is going to end some day soon, that they’ll be able to stay home with the family and have a NORMAL life?
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They’ve probably been told that enough times already that they’re sick of hearing it.
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No amount of funding is going to overcome what their “lying eyes” tell them is their reality for the forseeable future.

It’s not the job of government alone to be dealing with the problems of returning vets, even though it’s essential that the government do more than is currently happening. Not good enough for the rest of us to just complain.

Here’s a program in New England, which is a partnership between the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital “dedicated to improving the lives of New England servicemen and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with combat stress disorders and/or traumatic brain injury through clinical care, innovative research, education, family support and community outreach.”

Contribute to this one, or find a similar program in your area.

http://www.runtohomebase.org/what-is-the-home-base-program

I remember when I was in the Army back in the late 80s-early 90s, the old timers used to talk about the “bad old days” following the Vietnam War.
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Drug use and alcoholism, suicides, insubordination, criminal activity, child and spouse abuse, disconnection between officers and enlisted, units going months without conducting training missions, missing or stolen equipment, forged or faked reports to cover up incompetent and/or unfit units and personnel, and a myriad of other problems and issues that plaged the “hollow military”.
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Is our military going down this road again, or is it already well on the way?

Doonesbury has a better understanding of the psychological and physical challenges our courageous service people face than most.
Gary Trudeau features service men and women that have encountered rape, brain trauma, amputation, and post stress trauma. He chronicles their lives while in service and out and how they are supported.
If a cartoonist can show us the empathy and concern that should be given by society, then it requires us to be aware.
Rumsfeld once said in an off hand manner, “you go to war with the army you have”, but never much concerned himself with the consequences of that attitude.

I am glad that the military is coming out about the problems it has, because I have mental illness myself, and it is often exacerbated by this societal acceptance that it is a shame. It is not a shame, and these good men who are simply trying to get by are in real pain, and they need all people (not just other people with mental illness) to let them know that we accept them. They are not a burden, and death is not the answer.

I embrace who I am and blog about it too:

http://www.livingwithmentalillness-berkeley.blogspot.com

Peer therapy is also a very good way to talk about how it feels to have mental illness. I have lived with it for over 20 years now, and I would love to talk to others about it.

I am here for you guys,

Stephanie

Here’s to you, Stephanie…
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My dad suffered from it for the last half of his life. He died of cancer at about the age I am right now.

Not enough, but never fear, the Tea Party is here!
Sharron Angle, Tea Party/Repub candidate for Senator from Nevada, said we need to privatize the VA health services.
I can just see the story:

Marine Vet With No Arms/Legs From Iraq IED Blast Refused Treatment by Blue Cross/VA Due to Preexisting Condition

Don’t think this would happen because the new health care law will forbid Blue Cross refusing treatment because of valid preexisting conditions?

Vote the Repubs+TPers back into power and watch them launch bill after bill to rescind all they can of the health care law & regulations, then defund what’s left.