Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) calls for ‘all hands on deck’ in Congress as suicide rates exceed combat losses
US armed forces today lose more troops to suicide than to active combat, Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) said at the Atlantic Council on Dec. 10, while calling on Congress to develop an effective system to help veterans and remove the stigma associated with mental illness.
“We lose twenty-two veterans every day to suicide,” said Donnelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “They’ve served our country, they stood up, they fought for us, and we lose twenty-two of them to suicide. It has to end.”
Donnelly said the “suicide challenge” facing the military is “stark” and must be fixed.
“In 2014, we lost over 400 young men and women to suicide — the suicide rate is dramatically higher now than losses in combat, and every one of them is a mom, or a dad, or a brother or sister with kids or husbands who can’t wait to see them again,” he said.
The Senator said Congress should develop an effective system to help veterans work through difficulties readjusting to life at home after active duty, and remove the stigma associated with seeking help for mental illnesses such as depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Donnelly spoke at an event organized by the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.
A 2012 report by the Department of Veterans Affairs on suicide found an average of eighteen to twenty-two veterans take their own lives on any given day, though more comprehensive research is likely needed to isolate the factors and backgrounds that can put a veteran at a higher risk for suicide.
Donnelly attributed the high suicide rate to a lack of awareness of the availability of mental health resources and a prevailing stigma against admitting feelings of depression or suicide. He shared a story about Jake, a young Indiana National Guardsman who, after returning from a tour of duty in Iraq and before leaving for a second tour in Afghanistan, told his father “I don’t feel right, this is not going to end well.” Worried about being judged by his friends, Jake declined seeking help and left on his second tour. Shortly after returning home on leave, he committed suicide.
In 2013, Donnelly sponsored the Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Act, which mandated an annual mental health evaluation for every service member and guaranteed that those seeking help could do so privately. President Barack Obama signed that bill, which was supported by a number of military and veterans organizations, into law in 2014.
Still, added Donnelly, more work is needed to make veterans aware of available mental health resources, and to extend services available for current active duty members to former members of the armed forces.
“It’s got to be ‘all hands on deck’ in both the House and the Senate to continue to work,” Donnelly said. “It is very clear that everything we’ve done on the Armed Services side for active duty needs to also be matched up for veterans, that every vet ought to be able to go online, find a provider, call them, and get in.”
Alejandro Alvarez is an intern at the Atlantic Council.
Image: “We lose twenty-two veterans every day to suicide,” said Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “They’ve served our country, they stood up, they fought for us, and we lose twenty-two of them to suicide. It has to end.” Donnelly spoke at the Atlantic Council on Dec. 10. (Atlantic Council/Alejandro Alvarez)