The U.S. Army just released the latest figures of active-duty soldier suicides for the month of February. In a nutshell, we have a full-scale crisis on our hands.
During a conference call with reporters Thursday, top Army officials said 18 soldiers took their own lives last month. That’s down from a record high of 24 confirmed suicides in January, a number that surpassed combat-related deaths reported by all branches of the armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
It’s a “very disturbing” trend, said Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli, and it has lead to a month-long stand-down so Army officials can train soldiers to identify signs of suicidal behavior among their comrades.
Chiarelli said trying to reduce suicides “is one of the hardest problems” he’s witnessed in his three-decade military career. Chiarelli added “there is no single solution…suicide is a multi-dimensional problem that requires a multi-disciplinary approach to tackle it.”
Chiarelli, and other Army officials, however, fail to address one of the obvious causes behind the spike in suicides: multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking a toll on our soldiers.
Chiarelli did say that he believed if soldiers had better access to mental health care providers it might reduce the number of suicides.
As I reported Feb. 26, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki said they would meet to try and determine if the epidemic of military suicides is the result of deficiencies in the VA’s screening process or problems in the diagnosis or treatment of active duty service members who suffer from psychological problems.
But it’s unknown whether Shinseki and Gates have yet to sit down to discuss the problem. Spokespeople for Gates and Shinseki did not return calls or respond to e-mails seeking comment.
We’ll be following this story closely and bring you updates when we receive them.