Abstract
Currently, U.S. Military structures experience a crisis due to the high number of deaths in American military structures because of suicide. The suicide crisis among active duty troops and veterans, many of which have no experience of deployment in war zones, indicates that military sector faces deep-rooted problems. Finding the solutions for military suicide prevention is not easy and momentary. On the basis of relevant articles and statistics, this paper summarizes the main reasons of military suicide commitment, taking into account the actions for suicide prevention. It also aims to identify why multiple governmental programs and initiatives in this relation do not bring essential improvements. Every event of suicide is a complex of many interrelated problems, such as mental, financial or personal issues. Understanding the core reasons is a very significant contribution to preventive efforts. The continuation of military suicide trend may have long-term influence on the future of American society and the Army. For this reason military suicide prevention requires comprehensive and global assistance of each member in American community.
The rapid spread of terrorism and rise of military conflicts all over the world are permanent features of modern time. The countries which failed in securing the peace and safety by their own forces were in need of external support. The U.S. Army often serves as one of the supporters for such events, and military forces of the United States take part in many similar conflicts. Last two of them are military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan where American troops deploy every year. At the same time, the country requires protection and service within its own borders. Therefore, the number of new and experienced recruits is always high. However, war, military and conflicts always imply things which are not easy to understand for civilians, but also for many soldiers who take suicidal decisions.
According to the results of multiple military suicide studies, the number of suicides among the troops is not declining significantly. Another important feature is that suicide number for soldiers with no experience of military service in Iraq or Afghanistan is higher than for those who actually combated in the frontline. Despite the development and implementation of military suicide prevention programs, the numbers of military suicide do not change significantly and demonstrate the ineffectiveness of such broad efforts. For this purpose thorough understanding of suicide reasons will be an effective contribution to preventive activities.
Military Suicide in Numbers
In general, military suicide rates started to increase from the beginning of XXI century, reaching very high numbers at certain time periods and then declining. According to the data of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the number of active duty soldiers who committed a suicide, is higher than number of soldiers who died in combats. The estimates of VA in 2010 show veterans’ suicide as taking place every 80 minutes (Harrel & Berglass, 2011). In other words, the number of soldiers who committed suicide increases the number of those who died during military service or activities. Such distressing trend is common for all types of all-volunteer forces and veterans.
According to the data of the Department of Defense, sight decline in the military suicide rates for active duty troops in 2013 is almost equal to the rates of civilian population suicide, but these rates do not include the Guard and reserve suicide numbers; for these categories the rate was higher in comparison to the civilian population. The number of reported suicide attempts in the same year reached 1,800 raising big concerns of the actual situation (Kime, 2015).
Such statics sheds some light to the key aspects of suicide trend spreading in the United States Armed Forces and rising serious concerns. The suicide becomes a common symbol of desperation for increasing number of military troops on active duty or veterans who already left the army. High suicide rates also demonstrate non-ability of military leaders to manage such complicated personal issues.
Reasons of Military Suicide
In order to understand how the prevention will work effectively, it is necessary to understand the basics or deep-rooted reasons leading people to suicide decisions. The reasons constitute a big set of personal, financial, psychological, mental aspects that people face in every individual case. In general, all main reasons split into several groups.
One of the factors is distinctive and does not belong to any groups below, and this factor is military culture. It serves both as a reason and a consequence of military suicides. Military culture implies specific requirements for everyone within the army. In the conditions of military service help seeking is embarrassing. Expression of mental concerns, illnesses or complaints acts as a symbol of weakness. The weakness is not a feature of military troops who always must correspond to the realities of war and stay strong. This factor is essential for understanding of suicide roots and preventive actions.
One of the most common groups of factors includes a very big range of mental health issues. These factors are extremely important because they have a direct interrelation with all the other possible factors.
Prevailing mental health issues include the following:
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, a very common consequence of military service, and some of its main features are regular in-mind repeating of traumatic events, depression or sleep disturbances;
traumatic brain injury (TBI) which is in fact a physical damage, but it is likely to have a long-term impact on person’s mental health and behavior;
substance and alcohol abuse may seem an easy way to cope with the mental problems and help to forget the traumatic experience, but they cause an addiction and worsen mental health condition leading to suicidal ideas (Ramchand, Acosta, Burns, Jaycox & Pernin, 2011).
These factors suggest that increase in suicide number is a consequence of extreme stress. Such stress, both mental and physical, is common for new active duty soldiers living in fear of service at war zones (Iraq or Afghanistan) and veterans trying to overcome the consequences of such service. Often such mental disorders become core reasons of suicides or terrible crimes committed by veterans under stress. Mental trauma is a partial explanation of military suicide events. It emerges because the idea of “good” and “bad” in moral values balance of the person goes through the transformation and creates an internal confusion in one person’s mentality. Such misbalance changes the very notions of morality in an extremely fast pace. In many cases hazard for mental health of military troops generates not from the fear or horror which soldiers may experience during military activities; it comes from the sense of shame and guilt when the “buddies” die right in front of their eyes. Another rare, but equally important example of mental trauma, is a situation when soldiers die from the fire of their own colleagues by mistake. Another difficult subject within the military activities is the death of innocent population in war zones, especially, children. The majority of young men in the age of 20-25 come to serve in all-volunteer forces and deploy in war zones, but many of them have no willingness to do the actions which war requires. In this way the war destroys conventional way of thinking and makes new soldiers to get into contradictions within their own mind. The young men of this prevailing group are the most vulnerable and sensitive to different events or situations emerging during the active duty. In most cases they do not have a previous similar experience of military life, and, as a result, no mental instruments to cope with the problems or share those with someone else.
Personal reasons, such as financial, family or marital difficulties, form another risk factor for veterans or active troops. And this factor has a primary importance for veterans. Many of them come back home after deployment or base service and try to adapt to civil life. Such adaptation may cause troubles as military skills are not applicable in civilian life. The veterans experience a sense of abandonment or uselessness, because they are far away from the military “family” and traditional military way of life. If a person has difficulties with adaptation because of serious mental health issues, especially after long deployments, it also leads to suicidal ideas. Such people have the sense of non-belonging or re-think the things they did during the service, their security sense is changing and taking abnormal forms. A status of soldier means an easier access to guns, even in civilian life, and such regular and close link to weapon makes the idea of suicide real and acceptable.
Suicide Prevention Efforts
Taking into account multiple concerns on suicidal trends during long-time period, the Department of Veteran Affairs and United States Department of Defense invest significant funds to suicide prevention programs. For example, U.S. Department of Defense is an initiator of many campaigns on suicide prevention. Participation in such programs provides military troops with assistance in overcoming the internal prejudice for help seeking and psychological counseling within the army. Department of Defense also initiates educational programs on suicide prevention. These programs teach soldiers how to recognize the signs of concern. The popular slogan for such programs, “Never Let Your Buddy Fight Alone”, fully reflects their ideas and purposes. The number of such programs in 2013 reached 900 all over the Army (Brewin, 2013). The complete set of suicide prevention activities includes hot lines, crisis lines, psychological support offices and many other structures. All of these structures together act as a huge integrated network. Such programs also include participation of family members who represent a very efficient tool for the success of preventive initiatives.
However, all the efforts in the result do not bring to any essential improvements. Despite President’s declaration of military troops’ complete withdrawal from Afghanistan a few years ago and beginning of the process, many American military troops still continue to stay in that country. Slower pace of such withdrawal assumes that government’s change of plans may have long-lasting and ambiguous effect on military suicide context. It means that higher number of soldiers will have new mental and physical traumas, and it is doubtful that suicide crisis in military troops will take a trend to decrease. In addition, the troops which eventually will come back after military service may face late consequences of psychological problems in the next decades. In this relation suicide prevention efforts will require closer attention and integral efforts.
Why Preventive Efforts Are Not Effective
Many military, health and civil organizations establish multiple programs and initiatives, the aim of which is military suicide prevention. First of all, such initiatives require the availability of qualified professionals. An integral part of these efforts is the activity of military psychologists who can provide professional help to soldiers in desperate need of such help. In recent years, military organizations declare the shortage of professional military psychologists and non-willingness of some of them to work in the war zones. Today, this is becoming a major concern, as military attitude for help seeking among the officers is often negative. Such attitude can be a convincing reason for soldiers to hide their actual feelings. Despite that top military officers can also make a significant input into preventive activities, sometimes their personal beliefs in strong army may contravene with reasonable mental ideas, this is why it is essential for professionals to control efforts and assess the results in place. Only in this case soldiers can have effective support.
Speaking of preventive actions, there are two different parties of initiatives’ focus: veterans and active military personnel.
Many veterans in USA just do not have enough trust to the Department of Veteran Affairs, as they experience regular putting into waiting list, delays in health care service providing or non-qualitative health care, frauds and abuse throughout the country. Other veterans with after- war experience do not believe that VA department or psychologists can actually help them to deal with personal problems or suicidal ideas. But veterans are very important in prevention efforts. The assistance of veterans who came back after deployment and adapted to civil life after overcoming suicide thoughts or even experience is priceless for all the parties. The programs involving veterans as counselors on military suicides already exist but their enhancement will bring better results.
As for the new recruits, who later will become those veterans, before the admission to military structures all of them must pass through the psychological tests confirming their mental health and readiness for military service and its consequences. However, taking into account a very big number of recruits, it means that mental tests are standard, and “one size fits all”. In addition, next staying at the military unit and future participation in military operations may seriously affect the mental health of soldiers. In such case the initial tests will have no validity. Military culture may also have a negative impact on further tests or screenings during the service, as soldiers may deliberately choose wrong answers in attempts to seem brave and avoid mocking. Consequently, the success of military suicide prevention will, first of all, depend on the efforts of military top officers and unit commanders. Military leaders must spread the information on preventive programs and encourage the troops to seek for psychological help and support, if soldiers experience depression, anger or suicidal ideas.
Conclusion
Thus, the high number of suicides among veterans and active duty soldiers is a result of often and long deployments of American troops, their regular participation in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and military conflicts all over the world. All these factors lead to damages for mental health of military troops and, in addition, many difficulties they face during adaptation to civil, peaceful life. Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, as two most important military operations for the last few years, are and will serve as a source of newly traumatized soldiers. Since both operations are still running, we can expect that they will produce new number of suicides in future.
In my opinion, one and main factor that will always make suicide prevention programs fail, is the human factor. Of course, different programs may demonstrate different levels of effectiveness, but humans will always stay unpredictable or overlooking. No one can say for sure, what the other person was going through then or going now, and how it can affect him or her. The beliefs prevailing in the military and visions of a “good soldier” are always in contradiction with soldier’s personal mental issues: a soldier must stay strong and never - weak. Impossibility to overcome military culture and stigma in relation to mental health issues are the main obstacles for effective military suicide prevention. In addition, high military suicide rates may have another long-term impact on the society: the Army may become a “last resort” for those who have nothing to lose and unattractive for potential and prospective young men.
All of the above raises a question: will this new generation of military troops be another “lost” one following the soldiers of Vietnam’s war, who many years later after the events are still trying to overcome the horrors of war? That’s why suicide prevention requires global efforts of all American community in general and more effective actions of military structures in particular.
References
Brewin, B. (2013). The military has more than 900 suicide prevention programs. Defense One web-site. Retrieved from http://www.defenseone.com/management/2013/09/military-has-more-900-suicide-prevention-programs/70968/
Harrell, M.C., Berglass N. (2011). Losing the battle. The challenge of military suicide. Center for a New American Security. Retrieved from http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS_LosingTheBattle_HarrellBerglass.pdf
Kime, P. (2015). Report: Pentagon suicide prevention office in disarray. Retrieved from
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/health-care/2015/10/02/report-pentagon-suicide-prevention-office-disarray/73215278/
Ramchand R., Acosta, J., Burns R. M., Jaycox L.H., Pernin C.G. (2011). The war within: preventing suicide in the U.S. Military. RAND: Center for Military Health Policy Research. RAND web-site. Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG953.html
