Suicide Among Veterans

Bojorquez, after the eighth suicide in the battalion in 2013 sought professional mental health services from the VA. The therapist there told him to basically get over it, comparing it to a bad break up. This is another example of the lack of adequate care from the VA for veterans who have PTSD.

Countless medically discharged or retired veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom are entering the nation’s healthcare systems in large numbers attempting to seek medical or mental health care. Those that enter find a growing lack of concern for the inadequacy of the administrative system required to process their claims or support their growing addictions to medications prescribed by physicians unprepared for the level of damage sustained in combat. The Veterans Administration is consistently backlogged on both sides of their service departments. The disability and claims division provides a determination of whether a veteran has a service-connected injury and thus entitled to VA health benefits. The VA health care system is overworked and understaffed to provide care to a growing and aging population of veterans.

About 57,436 Veterans chose to use Non-VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) facilities for healthcare service while waiting more than 90 days for appointments with their VA clinicians (Couzner, Ratcliffe, & Crotty 2012). Since post-hospitalization follow-up with primary care providers has a great impact on theses Veterans’ health outcome by promoting recovery and preventing readmissions (Martinez, 2014). The Patient Aligned Care Teams track Veterans’ admission and discharge in VA facilities through the VA’s electronic medical record to ensure timely post-hospitalization with Veterans’ primary care providers. There are no data about post-hospitalization follow up among Veterans who is admitted into Non-VA facilities.

The issue is veterans are waiting much too long to be cared for in hospitals that were created to care for them. According to Modern Health (2016), the reason there are so many delays in providing health care for veterans is the paperwork involved in claims from providers is slow to be filed and reimbursement is even slower. “GAO [Government Accountability Office] reports from 2014 and 2015 found community providers waiting months or even years to receive payments from the VHA [Veterans Health Administration]” (Muchmore, 2016). If providers have to wait so long to receive payment, they would probably rather take their skills elsewhere; where payment is timely.

The amount of combat soldiers who commit suicide is often shown an extreme expression of PTSD. {Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry}. Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers- coauthors of "The Human Cost of Welfare." has mentioned that " We'll give you enough for a reasonably comfortable life, but we won't help you find a job." {latimes.com} Unemployment for these brave men when coming home is also a big problem. It's not easy for these men to find a job after their deployment because people often seen the Veterans as

Veteran populations supported by the Veteran Health Administration has a problem when their patients need help that requires counseling. A report produced examining the different problems that exist was produced in April 2012. The Veterans Affairs (VA) was investigated by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) in a report entitled “Review of Veterans’ Access to Mental Health Care.” (Howley, 2014). It was determined that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) does not have a method to track whether patients are provided timely access to mental health services (Office of Inspector General, 2013). VHA failures include neglecting to meet first-time patients with timely mental health evaluations and existing patients often waited more

When asked to describe a United States veteran, a couple words that come to mind are courageous, powerful, and strong. This is an accurate assessment of a soldier because it takes immense bravery and pride for one's country to leave and fight not knowing whether you will return. However, when soldiers are done serving their country their minds are in a chaotic state. Out of the recent veterans returning from the Middle East, only half of them seek out help, and out of this half, forty-eight percent are diagnosed with a serious mental health issue( Mental Health Effects). Twenty percent of soldiers coming back from the middle east are diagnosed with PTSD, along with twenty five percent of the troops

Twenty-two United States Veterans commit suicide every day, giving approximately one thousand seven hundred and eighty Veterans deaths due to suicide for the year of 2016 to date (“Operation Never Forgotten”). Veteran suicide is an ongoing problem because veterans enter the civilian world directly after receiving discharge from the armed forces and struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and acute stress, and anxiety (“Veterans ' Services”). Veteran suicides have become a large concern for members of the United States Armed Forces, Operation Never Forgotten (ONF) is an organization that is helping veterans find purpose and a reason to live, by working with the U.S. Congress, they could pass a law

Today, hundreds of thousands of service men and women and recent military veterans have seen combat. Many have been shot at, seen their buddies killed, or witnessed death up close. These are types of events that can lead to Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder ("Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD: A Growing Epidemic. “) Anyone that has gone through a traumatic event can be diagnosed with PTSD but research shows, military men and women are more susceptible to having PTSD (PTSD: A Growing Epidemic.) And, with little help from the US, many Veterans do not get the help they need or get treated for PTSD. Military men and women begin to

Over twenty veterans commit suicide every single day in the United States (Freking). Twenty lives taken off the face of this earth due to mental or physical hardships these veterans face each and every day. One of the largest contributors to this huge amount of unnecessary deaths is the silent killer that is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a mental disorder that develops when someone experiences traumatic events or other moments in which their life is in jeopardy. The effects of PTSD can leave one feeling alone, anxious, hopeless, and turn them into a lesser version of themselves. Roughly fifteen percent of veterans return from deployments in which they experienced combat with PTSD, thus amassing to over 400,000 soldiers from the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq alone (How Common Is PTSD?). Even though PTSD effects so many veterans there is not a lot of public knowledge or support for the fight to combat it. Due to the devastating effects that post-traumatic stress disorder has on our veteran population both the government and the public should provide the funding, support, and recognition that is needed to combat the disease.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is presently known as post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS), is a disorder diagnosed by feelings of anxiety, depression, suicidal attempt or thoughts, repeated nightmares, and unexpected surges of violence. Many veterans are suffering from PTSD. “It has been estimated that between 500,000 and 700,000 Vietnam veterans, about one-fourth of all who served, suffer from PTSD.” (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder). Veterans with PTSD have an unbelievably strong link to both suicide attempts and thinking about suicide. Military veterans are exceedingly susceptible to suicide in contrast to citizens. This is caused by the guilt they acquired from action in combat. There is a prevalent cause-and-effect relationship between military service and an unusual risk of suicide. There are studies showing that Vietnam veterans have a higher risk than veterans from our more recent wars. ''I think it demonstrates the experience of being drafted during the Vietnam era had profound, long- term psychological effects on people.” (Likelihood of suicide found unusually high for Vietnam veterans). Vietnam veterans are approximately twice as probable to die by suicide as men in the same age group who evaded the war. There were many men drafted who had to experience things that they were not prepared for, nor did they sign up for. This set them up to be easily affected by the war. Even veterans who signed up for the military are also strongly affected by the outcomes of war. Society doesn’t understand the suffering veterans go through when they have PTSD. It was not always taken so seriously and it wasn’t understood until recently. “In World War I, PTSD was called shell-shock, in World War II, combat fatigue.” (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder). Our society needs to realize the effect of the war on our veterans. Society can no longer be so blind to these

Complex issues in society are often observed, studied, and researched by respective experts in one particular field. Veteran suicide is one of those issue where this type of academics can sometimes lead to a very narrow view and simplistic solution to the complex issue being observed, studied, or researched. Integrative studies is the study of two or more traditional disciplines in different categories, but excludes the applied fields and professions. As Repko states typical categories include the natural sciences; the social sciences; the humanities; the fine and performing arts; communication; business; architecture; engineering; law; etc… (Repko, Interdisciplinary Research Process and Theory -2nd ed., 2012) This paper will explore two different disciplines to research and identify what are the underlying cause of Veteran suicide and is there a way to combine the two disciplines, biological and psychological into a comprehensive research paper to help prevent suicide in the Armed Forces.

The Veterans Administration has been stuck in debates about negligence and not providing Veterans prompt treatment, for days to weeks to months for basic primary care services. There have been allegations of Veterans that have died due to prolong wait times for primary care appointments and to be followed up with specialty care screenings. The H.R.

One of the great gifts we receive as Americans is freedom; something we must thank all of the men and women who serve in the various armed forces for protecting. The unfortunate reality is that these men and women often don’t receive proper care when returning home from overseas especially when it comes to health care. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has spent a lot of time in local and national headlines after many veterans suffered serious illness and even death as a result of unresolved issues in the system. Two of the VA’s spotlight issues include the long wait for service and the image of non-caring employees. The combination of these issues was blamed for multiple veteran’s deaths in 2012 and is a large talking point for the current

The percentage of military veterans seeking help for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has increased from 4% in 2006 to 12% in 2010 (Palinkas and Link 386). Too often combat veterans are discharged and left struggling with their drastically changed lives. PTSD also affects other people who are in the veterans’ lives. It is necessary that our country acknowledge the severity of PTSD and offer accessible help to veterans and their families.