This story is about suicide. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). A veterans group aimed at reducing the number of veteran suicides has released a study showing that the suicide rate among veterans is more than 30% higher than reported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and that states are undercounting veteran deaths by a combined rate 25% error. . A study called Operation Deep Dive by the veterans group America’s Warrior Partnership showed a 37 percent higher suicide rate among former service members than was reported by the VA from 2014-2018. “The difference in data is likely due to the undercounting of FSM (former military) deaths and the greater specificity of the decedent’s demographics, military experience, and death data available in Operation Deep Dive,” the study explains. NORTH CAROLINA TROOPER’S MURDER-SUICIDE, WIFE FLEES QUIET COMMUNITY DRIPPED US soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan (Getty Images) The most specific criteria in this study’s methodology were gathered from two data sets, one from a collection of eight states and one from the Department of Defense. LOCAL ORGANIZATION INDIANA VETERANS TIDE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE WITH COMMUNITY BUILDING The state dataset was compiled from Alabama, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana and Oregon from 2014-2018. The information used included demographics such as social security numbers, gender, age, marital status, race, state-reported veteran status, date of death, manner of death and other factors. The Department of Defense data set contained an active duty military personnel file, a personnel transaction file, and a reserve element data file. KABUL HEROES: ‘ALL IS WELL HERE,’ SOLDIER F. RYAN KNAUSS WROTE IN LAST MESSAGE TO MOM American flags have been placed on a grassy area of the Mall, (14th street NW at Madison Drive NW) each representing a veteran or service member who took their own life (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images) “If these eight states collectively represented the national rate, the combined death rate would be at least 44 FSMs per day, which is 2.4 times higher than the VA suicide rate,” the study said. “What we found is across the nation with the states is that they undercount veteran deaths by about 18%, which means someone who served in the military doesn’t count as having served in the military 18% of the time,” Jim Lorraine, President of the American Warrior Partnership and a 22-year veteran of the United States Air Force, he told Fox News Digital. “Conversely, communities count people who have never served in the military as military 7% of the time, so that’s a combined 25% error rate. WHITE HOUSE DEVELOPS STRATEGY TO REDUCE MILITARY VETERAN SUICIDES, CALLS ‘NATIONAL SECURITY CRISIS’ The study also found that a veteran’s chance of suicide decreased by 2 percent for each year a veteran served, and those who served in the military for less than three years were at the highest risk of suicide. Additionally, veterans who received a demotion during their service had a 56 percent increase in the odds of dying by suicide. ANDRE RUSH, MILITARY VETERAN AND PUBLIC CHEF, BRINGS NEW UPDATE TO PTSD, SUICIDE PREVENTION Lorraine told Fox News Digital that he hopes the Department of Veterans Affairs will analyze data at a more local level and incorporate more data related to self-harm mortality and overdose deaths, both accidental and intentional. “Overdose rates and suicide rates among those serving in the military are 2 to 3 times higher than in the civilian population,” Lorraine said. “We don’t know why and we need to understand why veterans take their own lives like this.” A staggering 30,177 active-duty US military and veterans of post-9/11 wars are estimated to have killed themselves – at least four times the number of 7,057 service members killed in combat during that period, according to a published research paper. last year it was determined. COMBAT VETERAN AND HIS WIFE HELP OTHERS FIGHT PTSD — AND FIND HEALING AND HOPE Santa Fe, USA – November 11, 2010: A Vietnam veteran holds an American flag at a Veterans Day memorial in Santa Fe, NM against a deep blue sky. (iStock) “The purpose of VA’s National Suicide Prevention Lifeline report is to measure every veteran suicide so we can prevent every veteran suicide,” the Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Ending veteran suicide and saving lives is our top clinical priority at the VA, and we’re taking every step possible to make sure veteran suicide data is accurate — because the first step to solving this problem is understanding it.” The statement continued, “Our methodology for creating this report is well-established and consistent, based on verified data from the CDC and the Department of Defense, and meets the quality and standards of a peer-reviewed publication. In the interest of full transparency, we publish annual reports detailing how we arrive at the conclusions of the Annual Suicide Prevention Report The bottom line is this: One veteran suicide is one too many, and VA will continue to accurately measure veteran suicide so we can end veteran suicide .” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Lorraine told Fox News Digital that he hopes to work with the VA on ways to better track and analyze data sets across the country and fill in any gaps. “I think if we stick together, we can do better,” Lorraine said. “We can always do better at preventing mortality from suicide and self-harm. I would welcome the VA to participate in our study and share data and then work with us to identify better prevention measures. We don’t see the study as America’s warrior partnership, we see the study as our nation and it belongs to our people, it belongs to the states, it belongs to the VA, we want to bring everybody to the table.” Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips at [email protected]
