WASHINGTON — More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hotline in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says.
According to a recent RAND Corp. study, roughly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan displays symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, putting them at a higher risk for suicide. Researchers at Portland State University found that male veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide than men who are not veterans.
The VA teamed up with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to launch the hotline last July after years of criticism that the VA wasn’t doing enough to help wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The hotline receives up to 250 calls per day — double the average number calling when it began. Janet Kemp, national suicide prevention coordinator for the Veterans Affairs Department, said callers are divided evenly between veterans from the Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam wars.
The VA estimates that every year 6,500 veterans take their own lives. The mental health director for the VA, Ira Katz, said in an e-mail in December that of the 18 veterans who commit suicide each day, four to five of them are under VA care, and 12,000 veterans under VA care are attempting suicide each year.
The veterans hotline, which is linked to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, received 55,000 callers in its first year, including both veterans and people who are concerned about them, according to figures being released today. One-third of the 40 specially trained counselors are veterans themselves.
Kemp said the hotline was put in place specifically for those veterans who don’t get enough help until it’s too late. “They have indicated to us that they are in extreme danger, either they have guns in their hand or they’re standing on a bridge, or they’ve already swallowed pills,” she said. Kemp said 1,221 veterans who were in such situations were rescued during the hotline’s first year.
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