It with sadness that I read the new Department of Defense report documenting an increasing number of suicides in the military. And also, cynicism about the proposed remedies.
Dr. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie
According the DoD report, the rate of suicide among active-duty military increased from 18.5 per 100,000 service members in 2013 to 24.8 suicides per service members in 2018.
For context, I was in the Army for a career and at the office of the Army surgeon general from 2005 to 2010. That was when the suicide rate began to rise from the normal 10 per 100,000 soldiers per year to almost double that rate.
I led conferences within the Army Medical Command aimed at reducing suicides. Later, when the problem escalated, I participated in a variety of efforts to lower it. I went to Iraq to consult.
There was a Department of the Army task force on suicide prevention. Later, a DoD task force.
Numerous recommendations were made. If I remember right, the Army task force had almost 200 recommendations. They ranged from tightening accession standards, to providing more mental health care. The issues of shaming and blaming commanders also were a key topic of discussion.
Resiliency training was big. At some point, there were more than 200 resilience programs in the DoD. There were no data (to my knowledge) showing that they work.
An emphasis was the message: “It is a sign of strength to ask for help.”
For a while, the suicide rate flattened among active-duty soldiers, although the rate continued to climb among National Guard and reservists.
The solutions were similar to those proposed in this article. The leaders in the Army and DoD were not shy about asking for help. The Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (STARRS) program was created to examine risk factors for suicide.
The STARRS program had data to show us what we already knew. The majority of suicides are in young, enlisted men with access to firearms. Often, but not always, they had a history of suicide ideation or attempts.
The trigger was usually, but not always, precipitated by a humiliating event, such as breaking up with a partner, driving while intoxicated, or getting in trouble at work.
Now, almost 10 years into retirement from the military, I feel sorry for my former colleagues. They have tried everything they can think of.
One solution, which is out of the control of military mental health workers, is to limit access to guns. Consistently, about two-thirds of suicides in the military are by gunshot.
So, as we continue to look for ways to bring an end to these losses, we must not blame the military. After all, they have tried all they can think of. However, I can think of one factor we can blame: the all-too-easy access to firearms.
Dr. Ritchie is chair of psychiatry at Medstar Washington Hospital Center and professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University, Washington.