Army Suicide Rate May Set Record Again

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_suicides

Army: soldier suicide rate may set record again
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
Thu Sep 4


WASHINGTON - Soldier suicides this year could surpass the record rate of last
year, Army officials said Thursday, urging military leaders at all levels to
redouble prevention efforts for a force strained by two wars.


As of the end of August, there were 62 confirmed suicides among active duty
soldiers and Guard and Reserve troops called to active duty, officials said.
Another 31 deaths appear to be suicides but are still being investigated.

If all are confirmed, that means that the number for 2008 could eclipse the
115 of last year — and the rate per 100,000 could surpass that of the civilian
population, Col. Eddie Stephens, deputy director of human resources policy,
said at a Pentagon news conference.

"Army leaders are fully aware that repeated deployments have led to increased
distress and anxiety for both soldiers and their families," Army Secretary
Pete Geren said.

"The Army is committed to ensuring that all soldiers and their families
receive the behavioral health care they need," he said in a statement
distributed at the press conference on National Suicide Prevention Week
starting Sunday.

"Installations and units across the Army have been directed to redouble their
efforts in awareness and prevention training and soldier care and support
services," Stephens said.

To try to stem the continually growing number of suicides, the Army already
has been increasing the number of staff psychiatrists and other mental health
staff as well as chaplains and bolstering programs both at home and at the
battlefronts. Officials also are about to issue a new interactive video for
troops and will be adding a new program on resilience to basic training
starting in January, said Brig. Gen. Rhonda L. Cornum, an assistant Army
surgeon general.

"There are no simple problems and there are no simple solutions," Cornum said.
"There is no program that has been shown to be truly effective at preventing
suicides ... Success will be the sum of a number of smaller steps."

As officials have said before, Cornum said the main factors in soldier
suicides continues to be problems with their personal relationships, legal and
financial issues, work problems and the repeated deployments and longer tour
lengths prompted by an Afghan war entering its eighth year and Iraq campaign
in its sixth.

The Army has come under unprecedented stress as the main force in the two
largely ground wars

Of the confirmed deaths so far this year, three soldiers were in the Army
Reserves and four in the Army National Guard.

If the overall numbers continue through December as they have been, Stephens
said, they would eclipse the 115 of 2007, 102 in 2006, 87 in 2005 and 67 in
2004.

The rate per 100,000 soldiers also has been rising and could be surpassed. It
was 18.1 per 100,000 last year — the highest since the Army started keeping
record in 1980. That compared to a rate of 17.5 in 2006 and 9.8 in 2002 — the
first full year after the start of the war in Afghanistan.

The rate for 2008 has not been calculated, officials said, but if the trend
holds, it would surpass the demographically adjusted rate of 19.5 per 100,00
for the civilian population, Stephens said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the suicide rate for U.S.
society overall was about 11 per 100,000 in 2004, the latest year for which
the agency has figures. But the Army says that when civilian rates are
adjusted to cover the same age and gender mix that exists in the Army — a
younger and largely male population — the civilian rate is more like 19.5 per
100,000.

The Army has come under unprecedented stress as the main force in the two
largely ground wars.

The Marine Corps, the second biggest force in Iraq — and even younger and more
male than the Army — had a rate of 16.5 per 100,000 in 1007, the last year
readily available. The Air Force and Navy had rates of a little over 10 per
100,000, according to defense records.

Col. Carl Castro, director of military operational medical research for the
Army, said that in addition to the many programs officials are trying, there
needs to be a cultural shift in the military to get people to focus more on
mental health and fitness.

"It takes some time ... to get a cultural shift," he said "Sometimes they
take
decades."

In addition to suicide prevention programs, the Pentagon also has been working
to encourage troops to seek mental health care by reducing the stigma
associated with getting help. Officials believe many who need help don't get
it because they fear it will hurt their careers.

Officials last year also budgeted $25 million for the "Strong Bonds" program,
run by chaplains and aimed at strengthening personal relationships strained by
long and repeated separations as well as other stresses.




2008 The Associated Press.
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