In the ten years that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) has conducted annual surveys, veteran suicide has always topped the list as the most pressing issue in the membership community. This week, IAVA released our 10th annual member survey, and the results are troubling: veteran suicide numbers continue to rise as the overall veteran population is decreasing. Year after year, IAVA has seen a rise in members who report suicidal ideation or who know a fellow veteran who died by suicide, and the data shows that the post-9/11 generation of veterans is at the forefront of this crisis…
Forty-four percent of IAVA members report having experienced suicidal ideation since joining the military, which is a shocking 13 percent rise since 2014. Sixty-two percent report personally knowing a veteran who has died by suicide, which is a distressing 22 percent rise since 2014. These numbers are tragic. We must band together to get this crisis under control, both through passing meaningful legislation and ensuring our service members have the resources they need to survive both on the battlefield and off.
The veteran suicide crisis has begun to feel like another example of our society lurching from crisis to crisis, with the topic coming to the surface only after a tragedy has occurred…
Read more at The Hill…