military suicides

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Suicides Increase, Puzzling Military

Possible contributors include pandemic and war-zone stress

(Newser) - The number of US military suicides jumped by 15% last year, fueled by significant increases in the Army and Marine Corps that senior leaders called troubling. They urged more effort to reverse the trend, the AP reports. According to data released Thursday, there were 580 suicides last year compared with...

Report Finds Toll, Possible Causes of Military Suicides

Greater funding of programs hasn't helped, Cost of War Project says

(Newser) - More than four times as many US active military personnel and veterans involved in 21st century wars have died by suicide than were killed in fighting, a new report says. The report from Cost of War Project, run by Brown University and Boston University, listed a series of possible causes,...

Military Suicides Rise Up to 20% in 2020

Leaders assume pandemic is part of the cause

(Newser) - Military suicides have increased by as much as 20% this year compared to the same period in 2019, and some incidents of violent behavior have spiked as service members struggle under COVID-19, war-zone deployments, national disasters, and civil unrest. While the data is incomplete and causes of suicide are complex,...

Highest-Ranking Soldier Yet Commits Suicide

John Rossi found dead July 31

(Newser) - The Army said Friday it has determined that suicide was the cause of death of a two-star general who was found dead in his home on a military base in Alabama, the AP reports. Maj. Gen. John Rossi was found dead July 31 at Redstone Arsenal, two days before he...

Math Model May Reduce Military Suicides

One notable factor: Older enlistees seem to be at higher risk

(Newser) - The US military's quest to curb its rising rate of suicides may get some help from a sophisticated new computer program, reports LiveScience . In a new study in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, researchers explain how they crunched data from 53,000 Army soldiers who were hospitalized between 2004 and...

Almost 20% of Soldiers Had Mental Illness Before Enlisting

Trio of studies underscores problems in screening process

(Newser) - Three new studies raise questions about how well the military screens its recruits, finding that almost 20% of US soldiers had a common mental illness before enlisting in the Army. The studies were commissioned after the recent surge in military suicides , and they find that most soldiers with suicidal tendencies...

US Military: Suicides Are Down 22%

But it doesn't know why

(Newser) - Suicides across the US military have dropped by more than 22% this year, defense officials report. The news comes amid an array of new programs targeting an epidemic that took more service members' lives last year than the war in Afghanistan did during that same period. Military officials, however, are...

Could Life Insurance Be a Factor in Military Suicides?

Suicide numbers have spiked since life insurance coverage went up

(Newser) - It's a depressing proposition to consider, but it's one the LA Times tackles anyway: Could life insurance play a role in the recent increase in military suicides ? It's not a question that has been studied specifically, and no expert the paper spoke to suggested it was...

Study: No Link Between Combat, Military Suicides

Suicide risk factors same as in civilian population

(Newser) - People in the military kill themselves for the same reasons civilians do and there is no clear link between combat or deployment overseas and the military's surging suicide rate , according to a new study. Researchers, who tracked 150,000 soldiers from 2001 to 2008, found that most of those...

22 Veterans Commit Suicide Each Day
 22 Veterans 
 Commit Suicide 
 Each Day 
study says
Feb 1, 2013 12:12 PM CST

22 Veterans Commit Suicide Each Day

Rate up 20% from 2007 study

(Newser) - Some 22 US veterans commit suicide on a daily basis, a new VA study finds, marking a jump of about 20% from a 2007 study. And it's unlikely that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are the key factor in the increase: More than two-thirds of the suicide victims are...

Military Suicides Hit New High in 2012

349 suicides exceeded Afghanistan death toll

(Newser) - Military suicides hit a grim new high in 2012, and experts believe that the problem may only get worse despite the Pentagon's best efforts, the AP finds. There were a total of 349 suicides among active-duty troops, the highest since the Pentagon began closely tracking the problem in 2001...

Navy SEAL Dies in Apparent Suicide in Afghanistan

Job Price, 42, found dead on Saturday

(Newser) - Some somber news on this holiday weekend: A US military official says the commander of a Navy SEAL unit in Afghanistan died Saturday in an apparent suicide. Job Price, 42, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, died of a non-combat-related injury while working to shore up stability operations in Uruzgan Province. The official...

Army Suicides Hit Dismal Milestone

As of October, 2012 numbers higher than 2011

(Newser) - As of October, there were 166 suspected Army suicides this year; that's already one more than the total number for 2011. October itself saw 20 suspected suicides, up from 15 in September. That month, an increasingly concerned Army had soldiers suspend their duties to talk about suicide prevention, the...

Army Suicides Hit Grim New High

July saw 38 suicides

(Newser) - The Army's suicide epidemic just keeps getting worse. There were 38 suicides among active-duty troops and reservists last month, the highest single-month total since 9/11 and possibly ever, reports Time . Other services are also struggling with suicides, and the July deaths—twice the number of troops killed in Afghanistan...

Why US Soldiers Attempt Suicide
 Why US Soldiers 
 Attempt Suicide 
study says
Jul 11, 2012 11:46 AM CDT

Why US Soldiers Attempt Suicide

New study uncovers top reason

(Newser) - When soldiers attempt suicide, the No. 1 reason is because they want to put a stop to severe emotional distress, a new survey finds. "This really is the first study that provides scientific data saying that the top reason … these guys are trying to kill themselves is because...

US Troop Suicides Surge to One a Day

Rate hits 10-year high even as combat eases

(Newser) - Military suicides have surged this year to reach their highest level in the last decade of war, despite the winding down of the conflict in Afghanistan, AP finds. The first 155 days of 2012 have seen 154 active-duty troops take their own lives, a rate just shy of one a...

Army Suicides Hit New High
 Army Suicides 
 Hit New High 
Jan 20, 2012 12:48 PM CST

Army Suicides Hit New High

Sexual assault on the rise as well

(Newser) - Last year saw a record number of active-duty soldiers kill themselves, as well as a sharp jump in sexual violence, the Army revealed yesterday while presenting a new report on its overall health. Despite the Pentagon's newly bolstered suicide prevention efforts, 164 active-duty soldiers took their lives in 2011,...

White House Will Write to Families of Military Suicides

Administration reverses policy to help 'destigmatize' problem

(Newser) - With suicides in the US military on the rise , the White House has changed its policy and will send letters of condolences to the soldiers' families, notes Jezebel . "The president feels strongly that we need to destigmatize the mental health costs of war to prevent these tragic deaths, and...

Marines' 'Poster Boy' for Suicide Prevention Kills Self

Clay Hunt did 'everything right,' still couldn't be saved

(Newser) - When Clay Hunt killed himself at his Houston apartment last week, he became exactly the sort of grim military statistic he'd battled so hard against. The 28-year-old had faced survivor's guilt and battlefield trauma head on, starring in a lauded public service ad campaign that urged his comrades to get...

Troops Suicides Increase
 Military Suicides Jump 
Jan 24, 2011 4:15 PM CST

Military Suicides Jump

As many, if not more lost to suicide than combat

(Newser) - Admiral Mike Mullen's ominous prediction of a continuing rash of military suicides looks to be spot on—though suicides in 2010 didn't surpass combat deaths as they did in 2009, they did significantly jump, from 381 to 434, Congress.org reports. But that combined tally of 434 is also a...

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