Veterans Suicide has Caused More US Casualties Than Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
By Bruce Newman
TURLOCK -- On a day like any other in America, former Navy Master at Arms Daniel Faddis, 28, put a Sig Sauer 9 millimeter pistol to his head and shot himself.
But veterans experts estimate that 17 of the 22 daily suicides involve vets not enrolled in the VA's health care system, suggesting more research -- and far greater funding -- will be necessary to get a handle on the problem. Not even the horrors of battle are a proven cause. "More and more," says Jackie Maffucci, research director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), "the data are suggesting that exposure to combat is not one of the high-risk factors." Daniel Faddis never experienced combat. He served in the military police, frequently standing guard at the gate outside a naval installation in Bahrain. "When 9/11 came, he wanted to serve his country and right all the wrongs of the world," says Stan Faddis. But while he was in the Persian Gulf, he developed a drinking problem that he never overcame. His parents believe it was the alcohol that was responsible for Daniel's weight, which had ballooned to nearly 300 pounds at the time of his death. That, and misdemeanor arrests for driving drunk and carrying a loaded weapon, dashed his hopes of continuing his military work as a civilian. "I think it finally dawned on him he wasn't ever going to be a cop," says his dad, "and it was the worst letdown in the world to him." Almost everyone who has served in the military now knows someone -- often several someones -- who suffers from disabling depression. Some end their own lives. Members of the IAVA were asked in a survey last year if they knew at least one post-9/11 veteran who had attempted suicide, and 47 percent answered yes. Another 40 percent knew at least one veteran who had died by suicide. "And 31 percent indicated they had thought about taking their own life since joining the military," says Maffucci. "Those are startling numbers." Daniel Faddis told another veteran in his family that he felt he had let down his military buddies when he was booted out. "He carried around a lot of guilt about that," Stan Faddis says. "Some guys he knew ended up dying in combat, and he felt bad he wasn't there to save them, or to die with them." The current wait time for a mental health appointment at the VA in Palo Alto is about 12 days, and in a recent national study by the Government Accountability Office it averaged 26 days. Still, that's considerably shorter than when the country went on a wartime footing following 9/11. "In 2001, your chances of dying by suicide were greater if you got your care in the VA system than if you got it elsewhere," MacRae acknowledges. The new federal legislation is creating a program to help the VA recruit psychiatrists by assisting with their tuition payments, and it also requires an annual evaluation of VA mental health and suicide-prevention programs. Faddis told his parents in 2012 that he called the VA seeking help, and was told he could not be seen for a year or more. "For him to finally say he was going to get help," says Linda Faddis, "and then be turned down, he was shocked by that." MacRae doesn't know whether Daniel called, or merely told his family that he did, but says that not even in the VA's bad old days three years ago would anyone with a mental health problem be kept waiting a year. "One would assume there was a misunderstanding," he says. Daniel Faddis was one semester from a college degree in criminal justice, and one month from a huge church wedding when he died. His mother blames the military culture he was exposed to for changing him. "These kids go over and experience a life that's nothing like they've ever known," she says. "When they come out, to my knowledge there is no debriefing where they say, 'OK, we're taking you out of this and putting you back in society.' The military is more of a machine. It gets you in, it uses you, and it spits you out." But Daniel's dad, who wasn't eager to see his son risk his life by enlisting during wartime, suggests his service may have also been the high point of Daniel's life. "He loved the camaraderie," says Stan Faddis. "I think his separation from the military is what caused him his greatest grief. He talked a few times about getting in shape and going back in. I'm proud of him, and don't regret his service at all. I just regret that he didn't get the help he obviously needed, when he needed it." http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43387.htm |
vrijdag 13 november 2015
U.S. Veterans Suicide
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