Suicides amongst active-duty troops in 2021 dropped about 15% in comparison with the file excessive recorded the earlier yr, however protection officers warned the annual Pentagon report launched Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022, additionally confirmed the army’s suicide price remained on an upward development over the past decade. (Joshua J. Seybert/U.S. Air Power)
Suicides amongst active-duty troops in 2021 dropped about 15% in comparison with the file excessive recorded the earlier yr, however protection officers warned the annual Pentagon report launched Thursday additionally confirmed the army’s suicide price remained on an upward development over the past decade.
The Pentagon reported an active-duty suicide price of about 24 suicide deaths per 100,000 service members final yr, down from about 29 self-inflicted deaths per 100,000 troops in 2020. Protection officers stated they had been cautiously optimistic the slowing annual suicide price was a sign efforts to handle the problem had been lastly working.
“Whereas we’re cautiously inspired by the drop in these numbers, one yr isn’t sufficient time to evaluate actual change,” Beth Foster, the manager director of the Pentagon’s Power Resiliency Workplace, advised reporters Thursday. “The year-to-year development gives useful preliminary perception, however there may be nonetheless a gradual growing development for suicide within the army over a 10-year interval, and we have to see a sustained long-term discount in suicide charges to know if we’re actually making progress.”
The Protection Division’s fourth annual “Suicide within the Navy” report confirmed 519 service members died by suicide in 2021, down from 582 in 2020. Whereas the active-duty price dropped, charges for the Reserves and Nationwide Guard remained about the identical final yr as in 2020, in line with the report.
Suicide charges dropped from 2020 to 2021 in all of the army providers aside from the Army, which remained on the similar price — about 36 deaths per 100,000 troopers, the report confirmed. Foster stated the Air Power dropped in suicides final yr from virtually 25 deaths per 100,000 airmen to about 15 suicides per 100,000 airmen. The Marine Corps’ price dropped from virtually 35 suicides per 100,000 troops to about 24 deaths per 100,000 troops. The Navy’s dropped 19 to about 17 suicides per 100,000 sailors.
Whereas the Army’s 2021 price didn’t fall, the service reported an about 30% drop in suicides in the course of the first six months of 2022, in line with preliminary knowledge revealed final month.
The 2021 report comes because the army has spent years grappling with an growing price of suicide deaths amongst its troops amid outcry from members of Congress and others. The Protection Division has spent hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in recent times on a number of efforts to try to grasp what causes service members to hurt or kill themselves. The division has taken some steps to extend troops’ entry to psychological well being professionals, fight the longstanding stigma that in search of assist was an indication of weak spot and higher practice its troops on firearms security, Foster stated.
Among the many efforts, the Pentagon was mandated by Congress to create an impartial assessment committee to review the problem. The committee started work in Could and is anticipated to provide a complete report on army suicide by February.
In an announcement Thursday, Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin promised to pour as many sources as crucial into suicide prevention efforts.
“Each dying by suicide is a tragedy that impacts our folks, our army models and our [combat] readiness,” Austin stated. “That’s why we stay dedicated to a complete and built-in strategy to suicide prevention. Going ahead, we’re standing up a devoted prevention workforce to strengthen our efforts to handle suicide and different difficult areas. The size of this workforce is unprecedented and displays our dedication to make lasting change.”
That workforce contains the anticipated hiring of some 2,000 new psychological well being care staff throughout the Protection Division by subsequent yr. Foster stated the division hoped to have its “preliminary cohort” of some 400 of these staff on the job “within the subsequent couple months.”
As in earlier years, the 2021 report identifies younger, enlisted males as essentially the most susceptible to suicide. About 89% of active-duty suicides had been amongst enlisted troops, 74% of suicides had been amongst these youthful than 30 years outdated and 94% had been amongst male troops. About 73% of suicides had been amongst white service members in 2021, in line with the report.
Firearms had been the commonest technique of suicide, the report concluded. About 67% of suicides amongst active-duty troops had been with a gun. Personally owned weapons had been utilized in greater than 90% of these firearms deaths versus service-issued firearms, stated Liz Clark, the Pentagon’s director of the Protection Suicide Prevention Workplace. Hanging or asphyxiation was the second most typical technique of suicide, accounting for about 26% of active-duty deaths in 2021, in line with the report.
The 2021 suicide report additionally included knowledge about army household suicides for 2020. The army household suicide price remained the identical in 2020 as in 2019 at about 7.7 suicides per 100,000 relations.
Many of the suicide amongst relations in 2020 had been by spouses — about 13 suicides per 100,000, in line with the report. About 4 dependent kids per 100,000 died of suicide in 2021, it stated.
Clark and Foster stated the Pentagon would proceed its work to lower suicides going ahead — particularly efforts to higher perceive what causes troops to try suicide and shun psychological well being care.
“It is tough to isolate it to 1 explicit issue, however we’re seeing the charges lower this yr, and I feel a part of that — and once more, we don’t need to get too far forward as a result of we have to hold seeing a development to know if we’re really making progress — is that it’s extremely highly effective that [Defense Department] leaders … have made this a precedence,” Foster stated. “Psychological well being is well being, and so we should proceed to work to interrupt down limitations to assist, to handle stigma, and construct wholesome climates and a tradition of connection the place all our service members can thrive.”
Troops and veterans who need to contact the Veterans/Navy Disaster Line can dial 988 then press 1, or textual content the disaster line at 838255. An possibility to talk on-line is obtainable at veteranscrisisline.internet.
