Vets' Suicide Rate "Stunning"
Some of America's 25 million veterans face their biggest fight when they return home from the battlefield -- when they take on mental illness.
And, a CBS News analysis reveals they lose that battle, and take their own lives, at a clip described by various experts as "stunning" and "alarming," according to Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian. One called it a "hidden epidemic."
He says no one had ever counted just how many suicides there are nationwide among those who had served in the military -- until now.
The five-month CBS News probe, based upon a detailed analysis of data obtained from death records from 2004 and 2005, found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 as non-vets.
A recent Veteran Affairs Department estimate says some 5,000 ex-servicemen and women will commit suicide this year, largely as a result of mental health issues, and Keteyian says, "Our numbers are much higher than that, overall."
He says the numbers in the CBS News study shocked everyone from Sen. Patty Murray (D, Wash.) to veterans' rights advocate Paul Sullivan.
Murray told Keteyian, "That's a lot of young men and women who've gone to fight for us, and come home and found themselves that lost."
Said Sullivan, "This is pulling the fire alarm to say our veterans need help now."
Staff Sgt. Justin Reyes spent a violent year serving in Iraq.
"The war didn't end foe him when he came home," says his mother, Jean Willis. "I think he was being tormented and tortured by his experiences."
Medical records show Reyes suffered severe psychological trauma after witnessing "multiple dead" and having to "sort through badly mutilated bodies," Keteyian reports. Earlier this year, a month after separating from the Army, Reyes hanged himself with a cord in his apartment. He was 26.
Willis and members of four other families recently sat down together to talk to Keteyian about losing loved ones, all veterans of Iraq, to suicide.
"Was their any sense that they were having problems at all?" Keteyian asked.
"I said, 'What's the matter, Tim?' " Kim Bowman replied. "I said, 'Don't you want to come home?' And he said, 'I'm not sure.' He said, 'Everything's changed.' "
Crying, Bowman added, "He said, 'I'm not the same person anymore."
Mia Sagahon's boyfriend, Walter, shot himself at 27, about a year-and-a-half after coming back from Iraq.
A weeping Sagahon remarked, "I just didn't realize -- that it could... I didn't think he was thinking about killing himself. Otherwise, I would have taken him wherever he needed to go."
Joyce Lucey observed, "I think that's what families are left with -- the guilt about what could have been done, and what we should have done."
"Guilt and anger," Mike Bowman said.
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved. And, a CBS News analysis reveals they lose that battle, and take their own lives, at a clip described by various experts as "stunning" and "alarming," according to Chief Investigative Correspondent Armen Keteyian. One called it a "hidden epidemic."
He says no one had ever counted just how many suicides there are nationwide among those who had served in the military -- until now.
The five-month CBS News probe, based upon a detailed analysis of data obtained from death records from 2004 and 2005, found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 as non-vets.
A recent Veteran Affairs Department estimate says some 5,000 ex-servicemen and women will commit suicide this year, largely as a result of mental health issues, and Keteyian says, "Our numbers are much higher than that, overall."
He says the numbers in the CBS News study shocked everyone from Sen. Patty Murray (D, Wash.) to veterans' rights advocate Paul Sullivan.
Murray told Keteyian, "That's a lot of young men and women who've gone to fight for us, and come home and found themselves that lost."
Said Sullivan, "This is pulling the fire alarm to say our veterans need help now."
Staff Sgt. Justin Reyes spent a violent year serving in Iraq.
"The war didn't end foe him when he came home," says his mother, Jean Willis. "I think he was being tormented and tortured by his experiences."
Medical records show Reyes suffered severe psychological trauma after witnessing "multiple dead" and having to "sort through badly mutilated bodies," Keteyian reports. Earlier this year, a month after separating from the Army, Reyes hanged himself with a cord in his apartment. He was 26.
Willis and members of four other families recently sat down together to talk to Keteyian about losing loved ones, all veterans of Iraq, to suicide.
"Was their any sense that they were having problems at all?" Keteyian asked.
"I said, 'What's the matter, Tim?' " Kim Bowman replied. "I said, 'Don't you want to come home?' And he said, 'I'm not sure.' He said, 'Everything's changed.' "
Crying, Bowman added, "He said, 'I'm not the same person anymore."
Mia Sagahon's boyfriend, Walter, shot himself at 27, about a year-and-a-half after coming back from Iraq.
A weeping Sagahon remarked, "I just didn't realize -- that it could... I didn't think he was thinking about killing himself. Otherwise, I would have taken him wherever he needed to go."
Joyce Lucey observed, "I think that's what families are left with -- the guilt about what could have been done, and what we should have done."
"Guilt and anger," Mike Bowman said.
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The results of that survey were that most of the disparity was due to mental health issues and the inability to quantify them.
I wonder how many of these suicides can be attributed to cuts in benefits to bring the states back to parity with each other.
I just received my disability rating of 170%, after a year of watching the VA foreclose on my house and living off of help from my and my wife''s family (the AF wasn''t paying me while it tried to figure out how to pay me as an IMA reservist on active duty in the process of being medically retired).
Even though I''m housebound, I don''t know that I''m going to receive any aid from the VA itself since disability is subtracted from retirement (if you have less than 20 years active service), and the "combined rating reduction system" will probably push my "payable" disability rating below the 160% required to receive additional assistance via the "special military compensation" tables.
This just illustrates the byzantine system that has been set up to provide the illusion that vets are being cared for -- while in reality much effort is expended to keep from having to actually take care of (i.e. *pay* or provide assistance) veterans in need.
The story here is not just that vets with mental health issues aren''t getting taken care of; it''s that vets are being stigmatized and actively *driven* to acts of desperation even if they were previously mentally healthy.
When a child lies for the first time their hands instinctively reach for their mouth as if to hold it in.. but with time you can overcome this natural reaction. Numbing ourselves is the surest way to make sure this is a human free planet, because we will surely destroy ourselves if that is how we continue to act.
I just received my disability rating of 170%, after waiting over a year while the VA foreclosed on my house (in spite of being active duty and the AF figuring out how to pay me while I was being medically discharged as a reservist called to active duty).
Even though I''m housebound, I don''t know that I''m going to receive any aid from the VA itself since disability is subtracted from retirement (if you have less than 20 years active service), and the "combined rating reduction system" will probably push my "payable" disability rating below the 160% required to receive additional assistance via the "special military compensation" tables.
This just illustrates the byzantine system that has been set up to provide the illusion that vets are being cared for -- while in reality much effort is expended to keep from having to actually take care of veterans in need.
Without an advocate I *would* be dead, probably by suicide.
The story here is not just that vets with mental health issues aren''t getting taken care of; it''s that vets are being stigmatized and actively *driven* to acts of desperation even if they were previously mentally healthy.
I just received my disability rating of 170%, after waiting over a year while the VA foreclosed on my house (in spite of being active duty and the AF figuring out how to pay me while I was being medically discharged as a reservist called to active duty).
Even though I''m housebound, I don''t know that I''m going to receive any aid from the VA itself since disability is subtracted from retirement (if you have less than 20 years active service), and the "combined rating reduction system" will probably push my "payable" disability rating below the 160% required to receive additional assistance via the "special military compensation" tables.
This just illustrates the byzantine system that has been set up to provide the illusion that vets are being cared for -- while in reality much effort is expended to keep from having to actually take care of veterans in need.
Without an advocate I *would* be dead, probably by suicide.
The story here is not just that vets with mental health issues aren''t getting taken care of; it''s that vets are being stigmatized and actively *driven* to acts of desperation even if they were previously mentally healthy.
I just received my disability rating of 170%, after waiting over a year while the VA foreclosed on my house (in spite of being active duty and the AF figuring out how to pay me while I was being medically discharged as a reservist called to active duty).
Even though I''m housebound, I don''t know that I''m going to receive any aid from the VA itself since disability is subtracted from retirement (if you have less than 20 years active service), and the "combined rating reduction system" will probably push my "payable" disability rating below the 160% required to receive additional assistance via the "special military compensation" tables.
This just illustrates the byzantine system that has been set up to provide the illusion that vets are being cared for -- while in reality much effort is expended to keep from having to actually take care of veterans in need.
Without an advocate I *would* be dead, probably by suicide.
The story here is not just that vets with mental health issues aren''t getting taken care of; it''s that vets are being stigmatized and actively *driven* to acts of desperation even if they were previously mentally healthy.
I just received my disability rating of 170%, after a year of waiting while the VA foreclosed on my house (in spite of being active duty and the AF figuring out how to pay me while I was being medically discharged as a reservist called to active duty).
Even though I''m housebound, I don''t know that I''m going to receive any aid from the VA itself since disability is subtracted from retirement (if you have less than 20 years active service), and the "combined rating reduction system" will probably push my "payable" disability rating below the 160% required to receive additional assistance via the "special military compensation" tables.
This just illustrates the byzantine system that has been set up to provide the illusion that vets are being cared for -- while in reality much effort is expended to keep from having to actually take care of (i.e. *pay* or provide assistance) vets in need.
Without an advocate I *would* be dead, probably by suicide.
The story here is not just that vets with mental health issues aren''t getting taken care of; it''s that vets are being stigmatized and actively *driven* to acts of desperation even if they were previously mentally healthy.
I just received my disability rating of 170%, after the VA foreclosing on my house (in spite of being active duty and the AF figuring out how to pay me while I was being medically discharged as a reservist called to active duty). Even though I''m housebound, I don''t know that I''m going to receive any aid from the VA itself since disability is subtracted from retirement (if you have less than 20 years active service), and the "combined rating reduction system" will probably push my "payable" disability rating below the 160% required to receive additional assistance via the "special military compensation" tables.
This just illustrates the byzantine system that has been set up to provide the illusion that vets are being cared for -- while in reality much effort is expended to keep from having to actually take care of (i.e. *pay* or provide assistance) veterans in need.
The story here is not just that vets with mental health issues aren''t getting taken care of; it''s that vets are being stigmatized and actively *driven* to acts of desperation even if they were previously mentally healthy.
I just received my disability rating of 170%, after the VA foreclosing on my house (in spite of being active duty and the AF figuring out how to pay me while I was being medically discharged as a reservist called to active duty). Even though I''m housebound, I don''t know that I''m going to receive any aid from the VA itself since disability is subtracted from retirement (if you have less than 20 years active service), and the "combined rating reduction system" will probably push my "payable" disability rating below the 160% required to receive additional assistance via the "special military compensation" tables.
This just illustrates the byzantine system that has been set up to provide the illusion that vets are being cared for -- while in reality much effort is expended to keep from having to actually take care of (i.e. *pay* or provide assistance) veterans in need.
The story here is not just that vets with mental health issues aren''t getting taken care of; it''s that vets are being stigmatized and actively *driven* to acts of desperation even if they were previously mentally healthy.