22,000 veterans called suicide hot line

[Ichingcarpenter]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says.

According to a recent RAND Corp. study, roughly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan displays symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, putting them at a higher risk for suicide. Researchers at Portland State University found that male veterans are twice as likely to commit suicide than men who are not veterans.

This month, a former Army medic, Joseph Dwyer, who was shown in a Military Times photograph running through a battle zone carrying an Iraqi boy, died of an accidental overdose after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder for almost five years

The hot line receives up to 250 calls per day — double the average number calling when it began. Kemp said callers are divided evenly between veterans from the Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam wars. Richard McKeon, public health adviser for SAMHSA, said 10 to 20 of the 1,575 calls received each week have to be rerouted to high-volume backup call centers throughout the country.
The VA estimates that every year 6,500 veterans take their own lives. The mental health director for the VA, Ira Katz, said in an e-mail last December that of the 18 veterans who commit suicide each day, four to five of them are under VA care, and 12,000 veterans under VA care are attempting suicide each year.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2008/07/28/2008-07-28_22000_veterans_called_suicide_hot_line.html

[MadrasT]

1. Thanks / K&R

Looking at the first sentence "More than 22,000 veterans have sought help from a special suicide hot line in its first year, and 1,221 suicides have been averted, the government says."

If 22,000 veterans sought help, and 1,221 suicides were averted... what happened to the other 20,779?
Does that mean that 20,779 suicides occurred?

I wonder.

[hootinholler]

2. 18x365=6570 So hopefully not! n/t

[Ian David]

3. Maybe the 20,779 were not yet considering suicide, but were still very depressed? n/t

[bdamomma]

4. and how many of those 22,000 will receive help.

these troops are going to be scarred for the rest of their lives, physical and mental scars, shameful.