VA says, Veteran suicide rate is lowest in years

According to a report released on Monday by the Department of Veteran Affairs, among military veterans the number of suicides dropped to its lowest rate in over a decade. After a national suicide prevention non-profit said the federal agency was underestimating the problem the latest figures come days.

Among veterans from 2001 to 2018 after instances of suicide rose, the VA’s annual report documented a near 10% decline between 2018 to 2020.

In 2020 the VA recognized 6,146 deaths from suicide among veterans, with reportable data the most recent year. In 2019 this was 343 fewer instances than recorded, marking the sharpest decline since 2001. (According to Pentagon data, by contrast, with veterans, among current service members in 2020 there were 580 suicides).  

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 the drop in veteran suicides persisted. The VA cited for veterans in crisis strengthened mental health programming, clinical support, community collaboration and paid media campaigns as important intervention methods.

To create more comprehensive resources Monday’s report also acknowledged that there was still work to be done.

“Chronic pain, insomnia, unemployment, relationship strain, homelessness and grief are examples of factors outside of mental health that may play a role in suicide”, according to the report. 

“We must also move beyond and look to address broader international, national, community and relational factors that play a role In suicide the individual factors.” 

In the suicide rate it remains cautiously encouraged by the drop, The VA said. Among non-veteran adults over the same two-year period between 2018 and 2020 the 10% decline is close to double the 5.5% reduction.

Still the issue is disproportionately impacting former service members. The age- and sex-adjusted suicide rate for veterans was more than 57% higher than non-veteran adults, the report determined that in 2020.

On average in 2020 the VA found that 16 veterans took their lives each day. In 2018 to represent veterans or service members who died by suicide.  On a grassy area of the National Mall in Washington on Oct. 4, 2018 American flags are planted.

A report released on Saturday says the number could be closer to 24, that may be an undercount, outside advocates say. A national suicide prevention non-profit, America’s Warrior Partnership, found that when factoring in unexplained or accidental deaths as well as county record-keeping mistakes, the suicide rate was 37% higher than the VA estimated between 2014 to 2018.

America’s Warrior Partnership said that this discrepancy is “likely due to undercounting of [former service member deaths] and the greater specificity of the decedent’s demographics, military experience, and death details available” to the non-profit.

The VA was using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defence, While America’s Warrior Partnership was working using death records alongside Duke University and the University of Alabama from eight states corroborated with the Department of Defence.

“Operation Deep Dive,” also found unique risk factors that influenced a former service member’s decision, to kill themselves the independent investigation, labelled. In the military the report found the longer someone served, the less likely they were to commit suicide, by a declining rate of 2% per year served.

The report also assessed that a demotion was associated during military service with an increased suicide risk of 56%.

To better collaborate and make recommendations that would support former service members considering suicide America’s Warrior Partnership has requested the VA share its current data.

The VA stated at the conclusion of its report, “At the table we need everyone, to decrease both individual and societal risk factors for suicide leveraging work within and outside of clinical health care delivery systems”. “What we do can and does make a difference, the public health approach reminds us.”

Source:- https://livenewzus.com/va-says-veteran-suicide-rate-is-lowest-in-years/