Suicides of veterans increase in US

As the United States salutes its war veterans on Monday with parades and speeches, the country faces a rising suicide rate among veterans of all ages, despite suicide prevention being the veterans department's top priority.

More veterans committed suicide in 2017 than in previous years, according to a report released in September by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA. That includes the most recent analysis of veteran suicide data from 2005 to 2017.

Although the population of veterans declined by 18 percent from 2005 to 2017, more than 6,000 veterans died by suicide annually, according to the VA's 2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report.

A total of 6,319 veterans died by suicide, an increase of 129 or 2 percent over 2016, and a total increase of 6 percent since 2008, the report found.

Women veterans' suicide counts decreased from 283 deaths in 2015 to 257 in 2016.

Overall in 2017, the suicide rate for veterans was 1.5 times the rate for non-veteran adults, after adjusting for population differences in age and sex, the report said.

In 2017, the annual National Veteran Suicide Prevention Report changed how it calculates suicide deaths. It removed former National Guard and Reserve members in its count. As a result, the daily average of veteran suicides was brought down from 20 to 17 per day.

Veteran suicide rates are 50 percent higher than the rest of the US population, according to the report. The highest suicide rate was among veterans aged 18 to 34: approximately 44.5 suicides for every 100,000 veterans in that age group.

Older veterans, 55 to 74, had the greatest number of suicides in 2017, accounting for 38 percent of the total.

The report and an accompanying statement by VA Secretary Robert Wilkie emphasized that the veteran suicide situation went beyond the VA's capacity to address, and must be targeted in a coordinated approach with local, state and private partners.

"VA is working to prevent suicide among all veterans whether they are enrolled in VA healthcare or not," Wilkie said.

"That's why the department has adopted a comprehensive public health approach to suicide prevention, using bundled strategies that cut across various sectors - faith communities, employers, schools and healthcare organizations, for example - to reach veterans where they live and thrive."

The new approach was meant "to reach all veterans, even those who do not and may never come to us for care", Wilkie said.

In early March, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to "mobilize every level of American society" to tackle the issue. Under the initiative, private and public sectors will work together to determine the underlying factors of suicide and take appropriate actions.

Democratic presidential candidates also have vowed to tackle suicide among veterans. Elizabeth Warren has pledged to cut the suicide rate in half during her first term if she elected. The US senator from Massachusetts has proposed diving into the cause of suicides, raising pay for military personnel and making sexual harassment a crime under military law.