Grim trend in Army suicides continues
By Katherine McIntire Peters kpeters@govexec.com January 21, 2010
Last year 238 active-duty and reserve soldiers reportedly committed suicide, according to new data released by the Army. That's a significant jump over the 197 suicides in 2008 among active and reserve Army personnel.
Service leaders are increasingly worried about the trend and have devoted unprecedented attention and resources to the issue during the last two years.
"There's no question that 2009 was a painful year for the Army when it came to suicides," said Col. Christopher Philbrick, deputy director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force, in a statement.
"We took wide-ranging measures last year to confront the problem, from the servicewide stand-down and chain-teach program, to enhanced suicide prevention programs and guidance for our Army units," he said.
In addition, last summer, the Army partnered with the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct an unprecedented five-year study of the factors that contribute to military suicides.
Traditionally, military suicide rates have been much lower than those of the general population, but in 2008, the Army surpassed the civilian suicide rate for males aged 20 to 29, which has hovered just under 20 per 100,000 in recent years. The Army's rate in 2008 was 20.2 per 100,000. The Army is still working to confirm the manner of death for 75 of the reported suicides in 2009, so comparative statistics are not yet available for that year.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0110/012110kp1.htm?oref=todaysnews
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