Suicide Poses Challenge to Health of US Armed Forces
Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Dr. Margaret Harrell, one of the authors of “Losing the Battle: The Challenge of Military Suicide.” The report published this week says an increase in suicides among active service members and veterans poses a serious challenge to the health of America’s armed forces.
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Lisa Mullins: The case of Colin Kilcoyne is not unique, the suicide rate among active service members has risen since 2001, especially in the army. It’s now almost double the rate of the general population of the same age. Numbers for veterans are much harder to assess. The Veteran’s Administration estimates that at least 6,500 former service members take their lives every year. The issue is the subject of a paper published this week by the Center for a New American Security. One of the authors is Dr. Margaret Harrell and she joins us now from Washington. Dr. Harrell, suicide of course is tragic in every case, but you suggest that this is a problem for national security as well. Why is that?
Dr. Margaret Harrell: We believe that it is and we refer to a statement by our first president, George Washington, who said “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”
Mullins: Meaning if they are not treated well by their nation they’re not gonna fight for the nation.
Harrell: They’re not going to fight for their nation, and their mentors, and parents and other veterans won’t encourage them to join the military if it’s perceived that service members leave the military so damaged that they consider suicide as an end to their pain.
Mullins: Mrs. Kilcoyne, the mother of the soldier who committed suicide, when we just spoke to her she said that the military has failed to change its culture that stigmatizes mental healthcare, despite efforts from the top in the military. Does that synch with what you found?
Harrell: It does and it’s unfortunate, and despite considerable effort by the leadership of our military, even our recent chairman of the joint chiefs, Admiral Mullen, has spoken out about how service members should feel no shame at reaching out for help when they need it; that’s actually the admiral action to take, that is you are in need of mental healthcare you should reach for help.
Mullins: In fact, they’re often told now that having mental healthcare problems is a natural reaction to highly unnatural circumstances.
Harrell: It is. And you’ll also hear discussion amongst our military about the distinction between post traumatic stress and post traumatic stress disorder, PTPS and PTSD, and the conversation that you’ll hear is that everybody returning from deployment has post traumatic stress of some degree, that everybody should reach for help as they need it to ensure that it doesn’t become worse and that it doesn’t develop into post traumatic stress disorder. But that everybody has some degree of stress and that they should reach for help as needed.
Mullins: So if that’s what they are saying, what the top brass are saying, has that not filtered to the rank and file?
Harrell: Well, the military is a large and very complex organization. And it is hard to infuse these messages all the way through the military. And unfortunately, all it takes is a couple of actions that reinforce the stigma to wipe out a considerable amount of effort from others that are trying to eliminate the stigma.
Mullins: Dr. Margaret Harrell co-authored a paper out this week on military suicide. Thank you very much.
Harrell: Thank you for having me.
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