Page 69 - JSOM Summer 2019

EDITOR’S NOTE

Lt Col (Ret) Michelle Landers, MBA, BSN, RN
JSOM Publisher and Executive Editor

Mental Health Care Remains Inadequate for injuries, depression, unemployment (a percentage that was re-
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Servicemembers and Veterans cently reported at 5% ), financial stress, alcoholism, and the
inevitable family discord.
Active-duty Servicemembers and Veterans are committing
suicide at alarming rates: Special Operations Forces’ suicides The challenges facing the VA are very complex and only one-
increased beyond conventional forces’ rates in recent years. 1 third of our veterans are in the care of VA Hospitals and
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Health Systems. There are hotlines set up for the military:
Total active-duty reports across the four DoD Services are military personnel who need help can call the Veterans Crisis
the highest they’ve been since 2012, which previously was Line at 800-273-8255. Suicidal troops and veterans can call
the DoD Services’ worst year since it began centrally tracking the Military Crisis Line at 800-273-8255, press 1, for assis-
suicide reports in 2001. A total of 321 active-duty Service- tance, or text 838255. 1
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members took their lives during 2018, including 57 Marines,
68 Sailors, 58 Airmen, and 138 Soldiers. 2 References
1. https://rebootcamp.militarytimes.com/news/transition/2019
According to Hester’s 2017 investigation of military suicide: /02/08/veterans-are-committing-suicide-in-va-parking-lots
“The current uneven access to appropriate mental health ser- -report/
vices that returning U.S. veterans encounter echoes the dispar- 2. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/01/30/active
ities in access to quality mental health services for the general -duty-military-suicides-near-record-highs-2018.html
population. . . . Our findings suggest that mental health dispar- 3. Hester RD. Lack of access to mental health services contribut-
ities are often a leading factor to the high suicide rates among ing to the high suicide rates among veterans. Int J Ment Health
veterans who experience depression and posttraumatic stress Syst. 2017;11:47.
disorder.” Many Servicemembers experience mental health 4. Suicide among veterans and other Americans 2001–2014. Of-
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problems before, during, and after military service, problems fice of Suicide Prevention. U. S. Department of Veterans Af-
fairs. August 3, 2016. https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs
not detected and/or left untreated. As a result, when Ser- /2016suicidedatareport.pdf.
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vicemembers reenter society as veterans, they may now have 5. Farmer C, et al. Balancing Demand and Supply For Veterans
combat stress and PTSD, which may combine with combat Health Care. San Monica, CA: RAND Corp; 2016.

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