Veteran Suicide Prevention

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Suicide Statistics and Brain Wound Insights: PART 2

In the past 18 months, three experienced Super Hornet pilots have died by suicide. According to their families, all had symptoms consistent with brain injuries.

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New Suicide Statistics and Brain Wound Insights: PART 1

The Military Times released a Report on 2023 suicide statistics released by the Pentagon. It states: “Military researchers recorded 523 suicides in 2023, the highest total since 2020. The number of active-duty troops was 363, up from 331 a year earlier. But all four services have seen a steady increase since 2011, when the Department began formally tracking the issue.

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How Big is the Veteran Suicide Problem?

Overview of the policies and flawed science behind the Veteran suicide, drug overdose deaths, diabetic amputations, and mental health epidemics. This series intends to tackle a range of subjects that afflict Veterans, especially suicide and drug overdoses which, along with diabetic lower limb amputations, are at epidemic levels. Read More
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New Days Could be Dawning

From football fields to battlefields to America’s classrooms and assisted living facilities, citizens and policymakers and the medical profession are wondering what can be done about suicides, “mental health” and the growing sense that daily life is causing damage to our brains. Whether it’s sports, or legal and illegal drugs, or violence, or online abuse and bullying and shaming, or mass casualty events, or the suicide and opioid epidemics, increasing numbers of young and old have “mental health problems.” We seem to be losing our minds.

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VA Continues to Avoid Treating and Healing Brain Wounds

2024 reminds us that the Veterans Administration continues off-course by avoiding actual brain wound healing while pumping more $$$$ into research, “Mental Health,” and achieving a new normal. Meanwhile, the suicide rate continues upward. Read More
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NYT: Friendly Fire Leads to Brain wounding

As we have reported for years, BLAST injury does not respect your nationality, gender, origin of the weapon, or your intention. As Dave Philipps of the New York Times reports, U.S. Troops are still training on weapons with known risks of delivering brain wounds.

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BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #17: Military Suicides: Rates gradually increased from 2011 to 2022

Nothing the DOD Mental Health System of VA does for brain injuries is approved for Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). And TBI has been shown to be a direct contributor to suicidal ideation, amenable to healing with HBOT. A more thorough Suicide Prevention Strategy should report on efforts to properly diagnose and heal brain wounds, across the board.

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BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #15: Suicide hotline botched veteran’s cry for help. An investigation found critical breakdowns

Workers at the national Veterans Crisis Line mismanaged communication with a veteran who died by suicide within an hour of texting the hotline and failed for 10 years to establish protocols to save veterans’ text messages for future follow-up, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General.  

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BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #13: Holistic Total Force Fitness to Maximize Performance

A senior retired US Navy SEAL officer has weighed in with a six part justification for ACTION to fight suicide. His remarks relate to short- and long-term needs for dealing with force readiness amidst known challenges in the SpecOps community. His remarks are in concert with the Interview with the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (SEAC), Ramón Colón-López that follows his remarks.

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BRAIN WOUND UPDATE #11: Suicide Risk, Mental Health and Military TBIs

Individuals with a history of military-identified TBI had significantly higher rates of new-onset mental health conditions than those without TBI. Increased risk for suicide was associated indirectly (through new-onset mental health diagnoses) and directly with history of TBI. Meaning. These findings suggest that conceptualizing exposures (physical, psychological) as events that accumulate over an individual’s lifetime and increase risk for negative outcomes (eg, suicide) may assist in identifying mechanisms underlying frequently co-occurring conditions, as well as evidence-based interventions. Read More