The Pervasive Increase in Incidences of Military Suicide in the US - Essay Example

Military Suicide Introduction Suicide, the act of intentionally killing oneself or taking one’s own life away, has long been associated with psychosocial states such as despair, anxiety, and depression that are associated with mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; substance abuse such as alcoholism, and drug abuse could also predispose individuals to risk factors that result to suicide. This paper will address suicide in the military while paying close attention to the manner in which the issue is framed in detail by drawing upon both theoretical and previous research data to support the viewpoints and practical examples that will be presented here in this present study. The paper will also discuss the impact of suicide on individuals and the larger society in addition to critically evaluating the effectiveness of different institutional and cultural strategies for addressing the issue of suicide. This paper proposes that suicide tendencies in individuals arise out of perceived burdensomeness as well as low social integration in the group life, and continued exposure to traumatic circumstances and experiences might yield suicidal thoughts; individuals who have once practiced or contemplated suicide are at high risk of committing suicide. Framing the Issue The pervasive increase in incidences of military suicide in the US over a couple of years in the recent past has been termed nothing short of a national disaster and a serious concern facing the nation (Mastroianni & Scott, 2011). Clearly, the heartbreaking trend of military suicides has shocked the nation to great lengths, yet concrete underlying explanations for the issue have largely remained elusive with policy makers struggling with plausible explanations of the issue. Between 2009 and 2011, the number of young veterans committing suicide rose drastically and remained unchanged over the whole period of three years; shockingly, nearly 22 veterans committed suicide on a daily period over the three-year period, according to the Veteran Affairs Department estimates. The suicide rate among older veterans decreased slightly while that of male veterans less than 30 years of age increased by nearly 44% and this has been attributed to the pressures of transiting from military service to ordinary civilian life, as well as the accompanying post-traumatic stress disorders. In the same 3-year period of 2009-2011, suicide levels among the young female veterans saw an 11% increase; an overall examination of the data reveals that suicide rates among veterans remain significantly higher than that of civilians in the general populations. In the year 2012 alone, the number of military suicides reported in the US military rose to a shocking 349, a figure that is actually higher than the 295 Americans who lost their lives in the Afghanistan combat in the same year (Mastroianni & Scott 2011). Back in the year 2011, when the numbers of military suicides gradually started rising, 301 suicide cases were recorded; most of the suicide cases, about 182 in 2012, represents soldiers who were on active duty. The issue of military suicide has been conceptualized as a complex one and the young veterans, mostly between 18-24 years of age, have been found to be highly susceptible to suicide particularly because they fear asking for help thinking it might undermine their careers. Some of the crucial risk factors that have been associated with the increased incidences of military suicide especially among the soldiers in active service are the pressures of deployment in war tone zones. On the other hand, the fact that the nearly three quarters of veterans committing suicide in military reserves have never been deployed has convinced officials that the military suicide tendencies are related to financial as well as personal problems. Generally, insofar as treatment solutions are concerned, they have proven to be highly effective in helping to reduce veteran suicides, but still, stigma associated with those seeking help remains a major constrain to the issue. Given its grave social implications, the issue of military suicide has been described as a crucial national health challenge and not just a military or veterans issue alone; after a lot of awareness campaigns and networking to address the issue, the efforts have shown fruits with the military suicide rates dropping significantly by about 22% in the year 2013. Affirmative actions from the Obama administration such as the directive to expand suicide prevention programs and mental healthcare for veterans and their families have been very instrumental in the dropping incidences of military suicides. Theoretical foundations According to Emile Durkheim, the French sociologist who devoted much of his nineteenth century work on the subject of suicide, the issue is both an individual and a social act since individuals do not exist on their own as separate entities but interconnect to form society, a being with its own life and properties (Mastroianni & Scott 2011). The varying incidences of suicide rates among different populations or societies in real life prove that not all individuals are equally susceptible to suicide; according to Durkheim, stable societies have fewer incidences of suicides because they meet the two fundamental needs of regulation and integration. By regulation, such societies have well-defined norms as well as customs that govern the manner in which individuals interact and live in society; integration refers to the commitment of individuals to those collective rules by focusing on group life. The varying incidences of suicide in different communities reflect the health of those societies since suicide rates go up when integration and regulation in the society is either too low or too high and vice versa. For instance, Durkheim observes that in the nineteenth century, the protestant societies in Europe (mostly Lutherans and Calvinists) had high suicide rates compared to Catholic societies primarily because Catholicism had managed to integrate its members into a collective community (Mastroianni & Scott, 2011). The high incidence of military suicide in the US can be accounted for by the low social integration of veterans in the American communities or lack of belongingness, as well as veterans’ perceived burdensomeness due to their unstable psychosocial states, which can be attributed to intense post-traumatic stress after years of service. The fact that military suicide rates exceed civilian levels of suicide indicates that the general population is more immersed in the group life, unlike in the military, where veterans are isolated from the collective life of the community. Furthermore, access to, and use of lethal weapons coupled with the intense post-traumatic stress disorders in veterans are high suicide risk factors in the military (Mahon J., Tobin, Cusack, Kelleher, Malone K., 2005), which explains the high incidence rates of suicide among service officers than in the general population. Effects of Suicide The issue of military suicide is a serious national health concern that imposes high social costs not only on individuals themselves, or on the military department, but also on the larger American society in general. Military suicide has robbed individuals of their lives, and the greater society has lost great service men and women who honored this great nation by fighting to defend its sovereignty in wars both at home and away from home. Research has proved that military suicide is the second most serious cause of death in the military of the United States, resulting to a crucial burden not only on individuals and families, but also for the large society and the nation in general. Research has shown that suicide leaves profound effects on the surviving families of the military veterans that take their own life, as well as the entire society of the survivors, and its repercussions reverberate across generations (Ratnarajah & Schofield, 2008). Suicide results to more problems for survivors than ordinary death, and in most cases, it leaves survivors with feelings of personal guilt, responsibility, blame, abandonment, as well as rejection and anger. Since individuals often cannot make any sense out of suicide, they are left feeling lost and confused and studies have associated high risk of suicidal tendencies among family members of suicide victims. The large society is more likely to experience higher rates of suicide ideation, as well as suicide attempts and/or successful suicide incidences among its members (Zhang & Zhou, 2011). Suicide behaviors are more likely to manifest in individuals who were close to the suicide victims, particularly close family members, and close friends, and this cycle might reoccur even in the large society. Due to suicide in one instance, the large society is more likely to be more acceptable of the behavior due to the “contagion effect,” which deludes individuals like close family members or close friends to suicide victims to develop suicidal behaviors. Generally, these effects of suicide are very significant, particularly because they provide a framework for the establishment of suicide prevention and early intervention programs to reduce suicide or suicide related health issues by identifying the populations that are at high risk. Knowledge of the intricate dynamics of family relationships as well as family effects among the survivors of suicide is necessary for the establishment of highly effective early prevention and intervention programs in addressing the issue of military suicide. Research findings have consistently highlighted suicidal ideation, plans, as well as suicidal attempts to be some of the highest predictors of suicidal tendencies within individuals; in the US alone, prevalence for suicidal ideation, plans as well as attempts were nearly 13.5, 3.9, and 4.6 respectively. In that respect, understanding the effects of suicide on individuals such as ideation plans, and attempts is the first step in the planning of healthcare policies that aim to reduce suicide and its related problems. Effectiveness of Interventions There is evidence of numerous institutional as well as cultural strategies in reducing incidences of military suicide, and given the gradually declining incidences of military suicide in the US today, the current interventions are successfully achieving the intended outcomes (Bagley, Munjas & Shekelle, 2010). Following the high incidences of suicide among service men recorded in 2006 and over the subsequent years, Pentagon initiated numerous interventions including increasing the number of behavioral healthcare providers by 35% over a three-year period starting from 2006. Additionally, enhanced training, extended crisis phone lines, as well as 24 hour counseling programs have been beefed up yielding a noticeable change in the reduction of military suicides; nearly 2500 military as well as civilian leaders have been certified to interact with service officers on strategies of avoiding suicide, also with successful results. An increase in soldiers’ access to behavioral health services has been successful in enhancing their ability to deal with stress that is usually associated with isolation, deployments, financial constraints, as well as personal problems that soldiers may have. A very remarkable reduction in the rate of suicide among veterans who seek care within the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system has been reported by VA officials; out of the nearly 22 suicide cases each day, only about five of those are patients receiving help at the VA health system. Nonetheless, despite the reported huge success of clinic interventions in reducing suicide rates among the veterans, a major challenge that has emerged is the stigma associated with mental health issues; the hardest challenge constraining interventions now is convincing veterans, particularly young soldiers, to seek care since they feel it will undermine their careers. Community based suicide prevention programs in the US Air Force in particular aimed at reducing stigma, enhancing social networks, as well as to facilitate help seeking through policy critical changes at the system level, in addition to enhancing community perceptions concerning mental health, achieving nearly 33% reduction in the risk of complete suicide (Knox, Litts, Talcott, Feig, and Caine 2003). The stigma associated with mental health conditions is one of the inadvertent outcomes of the interventions to reduce suicide rates among the US military; because of the stigma, many service officers would rather hide away and resort to the easy way out through suicide rather than humiliate themselves by seeking help. Similarly, the interventions programs have also led to increased social networks, with the realization that military suicide is not only a military issue, but also a national health disaster that requires multifaceted approaches to address it effectively. Community perceptions and/or attitudes towards mental health issues are gradually shifting in recognition of the urgent need to integrate veterans in the collective community life to help them overcome suicide tendencies and to regain their lives after long years of dedicated service to the nation. Incorporation of suicide prevention training among the United States Air Force service officers has also been associated with the great reduction in the number of suicide deaths in the unit, which points to the effectiveness of the interventions accordingly. Comparison with other cultures Like in the United States, Canada too has seen a significant increase in the rates of lifetime suicide attempts; the popularity of lifetime suicide challenges for Canadian service men and women was about 2.2 and 5.6 correspondingly in the year 2009 (Belik, Stein, Asmundson, Sareen 2009). In the Canadian military, exposure to certain types of traumatic events has different influences on suicide attempts; unlike in the US military, sexual traumas as well as interpersonal traumatic events are the highest risk factors for suicide attempts in the Canadian military. Research has indicated high relations between suicide cases and histories of sexual abuse, particularly because the intrusive quality of sexual abuse and use of force makes it unique from other types of traumatic events. Like in the US military, associations between suicide attempts and traumatic experiences in the Canadian Military are due to mental disorders. Childhood and interpersonal traumas as well as exposure to traumatic events related to deployment including witnessing of atrocities or combat are highly linked to suicidal behaviors among the Canadian Military, like in the US military. Overall, military suicide is a common phenomenon across different cultures, despite a few variations in the incidence rates and demographic differences as well as risk factors. Conclusion Overall, military suicide is a serious national health disaster, given the upwards trend in the rate of suicide among service men and women in the United States military; evidently, suicide tendencies in individuals arise out of perceived burdensomeness and low social integration in the collective community life. There is remarkable evidence that continued exposure to traumatic events and experiences might yield suicidal tendencies and/or behaviors in individuals, while individuals who have once experienced, practiced, or contemplated suicide are at high risk of committing suicide. The issue of military suicide is a serious national health concern that imposes high social costs not only on individuals themselves, or on the military department, but also on the larger American society in general. Clearly, the larger society is more likely to experience higher rates of suicide ideation, as well as suicide attempts and/or successful suicide incidences among its members. Suicide tendencies are more likely to manifest in individuals who have lost a loved one through suicide, particularly close family members, and close friends, and this cycle might reoccur even in the large society as individuals become more acceptable of the behavior due to the contagion effect. On the bright side, there is evidence of numerous institutional as well as cultural strategies aimed at reducing incidences of military suicide, and given the gradually declining incidences of military suicide in the US today, the current interventions are successfully achieving the intended outcomes. References Bagley, S.C., Munjas, B., & Shekelle, P. (2010). A systematic review of suicide prevention programs for military or veterans. Suicide & Life - Threatening Behavior, 40(3), 257-65. 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Suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts among rural young chinese: The effect of suicide death by a family member or friend. Community Mental Health Journal, 47(5), 506-12. Read More