WASHINGTON (The Hill) – The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has said the country lost 65,000 veterans to suicide since 2010 — more than the number of our troops killed in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Department of Veterans Affairs has been addressing veteran suicide relentlessly, and recent data shows a 7 percent decrease in 2019 to 17 veterans dying by suicide each day. We can find no solace in this change, though, as the rate is still far too high.
If we are to make a true difference, we must focus our prevention efforts on partnerships between the government and community organizations, veterans and family members. Social support delivered in veterans’ communities is an essential ingredient in the fight to keep veterans alive.
The White House recently released a five-point strategy laying out a series of actions the federal government will take to address our country’s veteran suicide epidemic. The departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice and Veterans Affairs (VA), as well as the Office of Emergency Medical Services within the Department of Transportation, will engage in a coordinated federal response that is long overdue. Among its five focus areas, its focus on “lethal means safety” must be the top priority. The No. 1 method veterans use to end their lives is through firearms — 70 percent of all suicides.
What veterans need is for federal agencies to partner with and financially support existing, innovative community-based initiatives that are preventing veteran suicide at the community and individual levels. Without a focus on addressing prevention in veterans’ social networks, we won’t be doing everything we can to help. Veterans are most likely to trust another veteran when it comes to health care and lethal means safety, and we know social support is a leading factor in improving treatment outcomes and reducing isolation that contributes to suicide.