Three Year Study Aims to Reduce Suicides Among Veterans

By Marlena Hartz | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Friday, April 03, 2009

The U.S. Department of Defense has chosen a Texas Tech psychologist to lead a three-year study intended to reduce suicides among veterans.

Suicide rates in the U.S. Army reached an all-time high in 2008, according to Army officials. Last year, 128 active-duty soldiers committed suicide, an Army spokesman told The Avalanche-Journal. Another 15 potential suicides are under investigation, he said.

In other branches, suicides are less common. They reported between 38 and 41 suicides last year, according to an Air Force Times story.

The Army’s alarming suicide trend continues this year, said David Rudd, the chairman of Tech’s psychology department who will head the $1.97 million Defense Department study.

“For the first time in history this January, more soldiers died by suicide than in combat.”

The problem is fairly complex, but ultimately, we’ve been in a two-front war now for six years. There have been high rates of psychological problems associated with that, and when that occurs, suicide rates increase,” Rudd is quoted as saying in a Tech news release.

Rudd said his study will examine whether a short-term psychological treatment plan can reduce suicide rates with those who report feeling suicidal.

He will work in conjunction with the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, the Warrior Resiliency Program at Brooke Army Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania.

In September, Rudd and his team will begin a random clinical trial offering cognitive behavioral psychotherapy to suicidal soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo., according to the Tech news release.

A short-term treatment plan makes sense for the military, which isn’t designed to give long-term psychiatric care, Rudd is quoted as saying in the release.

“When soldiers develop long-term psychological problems, they have to be discharged. We’re not only looking to see if a three-month treatment program will make a difference to reduce suicide attempts, but also whether it will allow soldiers to improve enough to stay in the military,” he said.

Rudd has testified twice before Congress about alarming veteran suicides.

Pinpointing the cause for the high suicide rate in the Army, which now exceeds the national suicide rate, is difficult as each case is unique, said Army officials, who have pledged to address the problem using a multidisciplinary approach.

“We are going to do everything we possibly can to drive it down,” Vice Chief of the Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli recently said in Fort Bragg, N.C.

His own review of 2008 suicides determined more than 70 percent of the cases involved a relationship problem coupled with either a financial, medical, substance abuse or court issue, he said.

The military and the public need to try to eliminate the stigma associated with seeking mental health help, Chiarelli also said at Fort Bragg, according to an Army news release.

A future option may be allowing soldiers to initiate mental health care through the Internet, he said.

To comment on this story:

marlena.hartz@lubbockonline.com

walt.nett@lubbockonline.com

International News Magazine Interview

Nomad Albatros, one of the co-founders of U.S. Military Veteran and Patriot Island, was recently interviewed by an in-world journalist with Signals Magazine, an international news magazine for military, government and security industry professionals.  How appropriate, since Nomad served as a cryptologist during his active duty in the U.S. Navy.

Known in-world as Writeangel Nightfire, the journalist urged Nomad to send a photograph of our group members for consideration as the cover for the May 2009 issue, in which his interview will be published.  Unfortunately, Nomad’s laptop as of this date is still not functioning properly, so he was unable to complete that request despite his valiant efforts.

A number of vets did answer the call to participate in a photo-shoot at Patriot Island in dress or utility uniform.  We took a number of example pictures and sent them to Writeangel’s email for the Editor In Chief’s consideration.  He selected the overhead view of a conversational group standing in front of the Information Desk.  According to Writeangel, he was quite pleased to see the several services represented and the inclusion of females, all in the uniforms created by Chief Edward Pluto, who is a retired Navy cryptologist.

Unfortunately, the view used did not include quite enough background area for placement of text on the cover.  Worse, the default photography setting in Second Life could not be enlarged to the scale needed for an approximately 8 1/2 by 11 inch magazine.

However, with a little direction over the telephone from their art director, we were able to provide a photograph that would satisfy the Editor In Chief and leave room for the magazine’s name, as well as other needed text.  We solved the resolution problem easily…some of the veterans in the photo shoot happened to know how to adjust the camera settings in Second Life.  So at last, we were able to provide a high enough resolution photo large enough for the magazine cover.

We are humbly grateful to each veteran who answered the call and who were so incredibly patient while we figured out on the fly how to take a high resolution photograph in Second Life.

We are especially thankful to those who posed for the example photographs that caught the Editor In Chief’s eye.  If all the effort brings just one veteran into Second Life and into contact with people or information that helps solve a challenge, it will have been worthwhile.

WWII Medic Received Purple Heart from Grateful Nation; Cold Shoulder from City Hall

BAY CITY, Michigan —  When neighbors went inside Marvin Schur’s house, the windows were frosted over, icicles hung from a faucet, and the 93-year-old World War II veteran lay dead on the bedroom floor in a winter jacket over four layers of clothing.

He froze to death — slowly and painfully, authorities say — days after the electric company installed a power-limiting device because of more than $1,000 in unpaid bills.

Read the rest of this story from the AP here.  An obituary is available online here.