Veterans and Mental Health: A challenge which must be met

If you are one of my American readers, a very happy Memorial Day to you, and I hope you get to enjoy this three day weekend with your friends and family.

That being said, my hope with this blog has always been to educate, and I wanted to take a minute to do just that when it comes to Memorial Day. This day, which began to be observed after the Civil War, was done to honor veterans who have fallen in the service of the United States. I’ve always believed that the best way to celebrate this day is not just to memorialize the dead, but to do everything we can to prevent the living from joining their ranks.

As such, let’s take a quick look at the mental health challenges our veterans face.

The numbers, as you can expect, are brutal:

• According to Mental Health First Aid, 30% of active duty personnel deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan need mental health treatment. However, of that 30%, only half actually get the treatment they need.
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) rates are fifteen times higher among veterans than civilians.
• The depression rate is five times higher among veterans.

Tragically, suicide rates among veterans are also extremely elevated. According to a 2018 report:

• From 2005-2016, there are roughly 6,000 veteran suicides every year.
• That number has increased at a rate greater than the rate among the civilian population.
• The rate of firearm suicides is higher among veterans (65.4%) than non veterans (48.4%).
• Veterans who used Veterans Health Administration care saw a smaller increase in suicide rates (13.7%) than those who did not (26%).

These numbers are truly brutal. More to the point, they’re shameful. We need to honor veterans with more than gauzy words and the Pledge of Allegiance. These brave men and women truly do put their lives on hold in order to protect the rest of us left behind. They sacrifice. They deserve more than our respect and a day where we barbecue. They deserve our care.

What does that involve? As you can imagine, that answer is complicated, complex and expensive – and well above my pay grade. Broadly speaking, however, I’d argue there are at least a few things we need to do.

First of all, if you have a depressed veteran in your family, it’s important that you know that resources are out there to help. It’s also worth noting that the Veterans Administration is clearly trying to address this continuing problem. There has been extensive talk about overhauling the way we provide our veterans health care, and it’s clear that we need to do more in order to tackle this issue. Furthermore, multiple studies have shown that mental health stigma keeps service members from getting the help they need and deserve. As such, clear that the military, and society as a whole, must continue to tackle mental health stigma.

So, again, happy and solemn Memorial Day to you and your family. I hope that this blog entry has made you more aware of the challenges our veterans face and the unacceptable reality that we lose over 6,000 every year to suicide, and thousands more who suffer from pain-filled lives as a result of their service.

We need to do better. Our men and women in uniform deserve nothing more.