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U.S. army's suicide rate in Iraq higher than usual, Pentagon official says
Canadian Press, via Health News e-zine ^ | Jan. 14, 2004 | MATT KELLEY

Posted on 01/27/2004 5:45:37 AM PST by archy



U.S. army's suicide rate in Iraq higher than usual, Pentagon official says

Jan. 14, 2004
Provided by: Canadian Press
Written by: MATT KELLEY

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. soldiers in Iraq are killing themselves at a high rate despite the work of special teams sent to help troops deal with combat stress, the Pentagon's top doctor said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, about 2,500 soldiers who have returned from war are having to wait for medical care at bases in the United States, said Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defence for health affairs. The problem of troops on "medical extension" is likely to get worse as the Pentagon rotates hundreds of thousands of troops into and out of Iraq this spring, he said.

Both situations illustrate the stresses placed on the troops and the military's health system by the war in Iraq.

Suicide has become such a pressing issue that the army sent an assessment team to Iraq late last year to see if anything more could be done to prevent troops from killing themselves. The army also began offering more counselling to returning troops after several soldiers at Fort Bragg, N.C., killed their wives and themselves after returning home from the war.

Winkenwerder said the military has documented 21 suicides during 2003 among troops involved in the Iraq war. Eighteen of those were army soldiers, he said.

That's a suicide rate for soldiers in Iraq of about 13.5 per 100,000, Winkenwerder said. In 2002, the army reported an overall suicide rate of 10.9 per 100,000.

The overall suicide rate countrywide during 2001 was 10.7 per 100,000, according to the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

By contrast, two U.S. military personnel killed themselves during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, although that conflict only lasted about a month. The army recorded 102 suicides during 1991 for a rate of 14.4 per 100,000. The army's highest suicide rate in recent years came in 1993, when the rate was 15.7 per 100,000.

The marines have the military's highest suicide rate. Last year their rate was 12.6 per 100,000. During 1993, the marines' rate was 20.9 per 100,000.

The military investigates every death and some of those probes may be incomplete, meaning the actual suicide rate could be even higher, Winkenwerder said. He said health officials haven't identified any common threads among the confirmed suicides.

"We don't see any trend there that tells us that there's more we might be doing," Winkenwerder told a breakfast meeting of Pentagon reporters.

The military has nine combat stress teams in Iraq to help treat troops' mental health problems, and each division has a psychiatrist, psychologist and social worker, Winkenwerder said. Of more than 10,000 troops medically evacuated from Iraq, between 300 and 400 were sent outside the country for treatment of mental health problems, he said.

The military prefers to treat mental health problems such as depression by keeping troops in their regular duties while they get counselling and possibly medication, Winkenwerder said. Less than one per cent of the troops in Iraq are treated for mental issues during an average week, he said.

Winkenwerder said he had no specifics on the number of soldiers being treated for battlefield stress, although the military is focused on treating that problem.

"We believe they are being identified, they are being supported," Winkenwerder said.

The military also is working to solve the issue of soldiers awaiting non-emergency medical care. Since November, about 1,900 of 4,400 waiting for medical care have been treated, Winkenwerder said.

But the military expects more problems when tens of thousands of troops are rotated in and out of Iraq this spring, Winkenwerder said. Many of those troops leaving Iraq may have to wait at various bases in the United States for medical treatment such as physical therapy for injuries, he said.

The army is working to sign contracts with civilian medical providers and bringing in more staff from the navy, air force and Department of Veterans Affairs to help, Winkenwerder said.

Another source of the problem has been a large number of national guard and reserve troops activated for duty in Iraq who have to be treated for underlying health problems, Winkenwerder said. The army is working to solve that problem by screening those reservists at their home bases, rather than later.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cdc; iraq; seasonaldepression; suicide; suiciderate
This is the first such report I've heard of since the Christmas season/New Years, always a hard time for young soldiers away from hime.
1 posted on 01/27/2004 5:45:37 AM PST by archy
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To: archy
U.S. army's suicide rate in Iraq higher than usual, Pentagon official says

Define usual

2 posted on 01/27/2004 5:50:00 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I will defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: archy
Meanwhile, about 2,500 soldiers who have returned from war are having to wait for medical care at bases in the United States,

The army has socialized medicine. Any takers? All the democrat candidates should be forced to endure this kind of treatment for at least 10 years before they make us all endure it...

3 posted on 01/27/2004 5:57:13 AM PST by 2banana
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To: archy
Suicides are up in Monterey CA, too.

Posted on Mon, Dec. 15, 2003

Suicide rate in Monterey County nearly doubles in 2003

By CLARISSA ALJENTERA claljentera@montereyherald.com

The number of suicides in Monterey County this year has nearly doubled since last year, and prevention specialists say they are baffled as to why.[excerpt]
It's all Bush's fault....as is every bad development is (/sarcasm)
4 posted on 01/27/2004 6:03:20 AM PST by syriacus (Ask Howard Dean if he wants the US to fund abortions as VT does.)
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To: All
The rates were highest in 1993? Hmmmmmmmmmmm......
5 posted on 01/27/2004 6:03:43 AM PST by Belisaurius ("Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, Ted" - Joseph Kennedy 1958)
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To: archy
Many broken marriages and infidelity among Americans overall....exacerbated by combat duty far away...

Doubt there is as much psychic pain for a young soldier....who 'in his mind' is fighting for his country his family his wife and children then to have her desert him for someone else....when he is in the middle of the toughest time of his young life...

I've seen 19 yrs old get themselves killed.. no longer caring.. or paying attention when it was critical to do so...

Deaths were not listed as suicides but they probably should have been...back then commanders paid little attention, help wasn't available, and real men wouldn't have sought it even if it was...

Probably doesn't help to send psychologically immature soldiers to war..and given the divorce rate in these times...many kids (from working single parent families) now in combat have had a rough time growing themselves up..

Of course thanks to groups like the ACLU and People for the American Way....Christianity and God have been pulled away from kids and ridiculed to the point that many kids who may have been reached weren't..Being from a broken home and not having God inspired identities make it tougher on today's kids to cope...and get passed the pain...and live long enough to find the light at the end of the tunnel..
imo
6 posted on 01/27/2004 6:16:24 AM PST by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: archy
So, how many suicides among the US troops in Iraq. I don't see any numbers or names?
7 posted on 01/27/2004 7:00:09 AM PST by Mike Darancette (Proud member - Neoconservative Power Vortex)
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To: archy
Well...when you have role models like movie stars who play gay, the morals of Madonna or Britney for women (who are the wives/girlfriends of some of these guys) this is NOT surprising. It's probably a lot more depressing than we know.....MHO
8 posted on 01/27/2004 7:22:26 AM PST by goodnesswins (Poverty is more about the "mental" than the "money.")
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To: Mike Darancette
So, how many suicides among the US troops in Iraq. I don't see any numbers or names?

Winkenwerder said the military has documented 21 suicides during 2003 among troops involved in the Iraq war. Eighteen of those were army soldiers, he said.

I've got a couple of the names. But the families have enough grief as it is, and there are enemies of American troops who would use that grief to further attack their families.

9 posted on 01/27/2004 7:24:26 AM PST by archy (Angiloj! Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj!)
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To: goodnesswins
Well...when you have role models like movie stars who play gay, the morals of Madonna or Britney for women (who are the wives/girlfriends of some of these guys) this is NOT surprising. It's probably a lot more depressing than we know.....MHO

That's a big part of it. There are other factors as well, but you've noted around 10 or 15% of the problem.

10 posted on 01/27/2004 7:26:31 AM PST by archy (Angiloj! Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj!)
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To: joesnuffy
I've seen 19 yrs old get themselves killed.. no longer caring.. or paying attention when it was critical to do so...

Deaths were not listed as suicides but they probably should have been...back then commanders paid little attention, help wasn't available, and real men wouldn't have sought it even if it was...

Yep. And I've seen hot, tired, exhausted, hungry and sick 35-year-olds just give up.

11 posted on 01/27/2004 7:28:45 AM PST by archy (Angiloj! Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj!)
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To: syriacus
Suicides are up in Monterey CA, too.

Yep. About to reach the levels found in Sweden, I'd reckon.

See additional info *here*.

12 posted on 01/27/2004 7:32:27 AM PST by archy (Angiloj! Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj!)
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To: Belisaurius
The rates were highest in 1993? Hmmmmmmmmmmm......

1993 rates *by state* here.

13 posted on 01/27/2004 7:34:01 AM PST by archy (Angiloj! Mia kusenveturilo estas plena da angiloj!)
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To: archy
Winkenwerder said the military has documented 21 suicides during 2003 among troops involved in the Iraq war. Eighteen of those were army soldiers, he said.

Bondarenko, Aleksiey Captain 34 Ukrainian Army - Gunshot Suicide was the only suicide I could find from my sources that happened in the war zone.

14 posted on 01/27/2004 7:55:29 AM PST by Mike Darancette (Proud member - Neoconservative Power Vortex)
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To: archy
The matter of military suicide rates has come up before in reference to Kosovo.

Here are the active duty military deaths, broken down by cause and branch of service, from 1980 through 1999.

FYI only - regards.

(It's a .pdf document from the DOD's Directorate For Information Operations and Reports.)

15 posted on 01/27/2004 12:08:42 PM PST by Hoplite
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