--- title: Why Are There So Many Military Suicides? | TIME description: Why have Army suicide rates doubled and what can the military do about it? canonical: https://time.com/video/ewiDXxrn/ og:title: Why Are There So Many Military Suicides? og:description: Why have Army suicide rates doubled and what can the military do about it? og:url: https://time.com/video/ewiDXxrn/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ewiDXxrn/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Are There So Many Military Suicides? twitter:description: Why have Army suicide rates doubled and what can the military do about it? twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ewiDXxrn/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Why Are There So Many Military Suicides? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Why Are There So Many Military Suicides? [Watch (HLS stream): Why Are There So Many Military Suicides?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ewiDXxrn.m3u8) (5:23)  _Published 2011-11-02. Why have Army suicide rates doubled and what can the military do about it?_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:18 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Suicide Rates Are Rising In Nearly Every State, CDC Says](/video/D1Rd8WR2/) ### Suicide Rates Are Rising In Nearly Every State, CDC Says [One a Day: Soldiers and Suicide in the U.S. Military](/video/fDNAAvuz/) ### One a Day: Soldiers and Suicide in the U.S. Military [Military Suicides and the Stigma of Therapy](/video/1JiYVaD8/) ### Military Suicides and the Stigma of Therapy --- ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] This is Command Post. A series of discussions about military matters form Time and The Center for a New American Security. [ MUSIC ] I'm Dr. Ritchie. Until recently you were the Army's top psychiatrist. In the last five years, Army suicide rate has doubled. Why is this happening? And what is the service doing about it? What we find when we looked at the suicides, is that they're really happening in units that have been deployed over and over. So, part of the phenomenon is something we call the high op tempo. Where the leadership of the unit will complain that they really don't know their soldiers. Service members, the same way that they used to. And when you look at the suicides, a third have never deployed. So clearly, it's not about individual deployments for them. But I really believe that it's about the unit deployment tempo. The Army did a task force. The Department of Defense has done a task force. They have tried and trying, everything that they can think of. But nonetheless, it continues to be a very difficult problem. We are leveling off the suicide rate in the active duty. But in the National Guard and the Reserve, it's continuing to rise. Is that because the Guard and the Reserves are basically more isolated when they come back home? They don't have the support of a big post with all of it's mental health facilites? And when they go back to their communities across the country? That's certainly part of it. Another part is they may have had a really good, exciting job in the military, and with this economy, when they come back, they may be returning to no work. Or a job that they really don't feel is the same as it was when they were in the military. And the feeling that the people out in my hometown, they don't understand me. The feeling about being isolated. That's why it's so important for communities to reach out to the Guard and Reserve, as they're coming back home. Dr. Harrell, you recently did a, a policy paper on suicide. Is it fair to say the military is having a suicide epidemic? It has doubled in the last five years in the, in the United States Army. For the army. And so if, if not an epidemic it is certainly a growing problem. I think it's fair to say it's a growing problem. As Doctor Richie noted, especially in the Guard and Reserve. It's an increasing problem. And one of the real problems for Guardsmen and Reservists, is that they have fewer resources available to them. If they're not activated, they don't have access to the same military programs. And especially in the case of the Guard, we see state by state programs being defunded. Mm- hm. In this time of reduced state resources. Isn't it fair to point though, about the Guard. Because I've looked into it to some degree. That a lot of time times, the big Army doesn't know if a Guardsman has killed himself? The connectivity between individual Guardsmen and the Army writ large, isn't very good. And they don't have an accurate barometer of that. Fair statement, not a fair statement? Well, it's much better than it used to be. So, five, six years ago we really had very little idea if a Guardsmen or a Reservist suicided. In the last five years under the leadership of the Vice Chief of Staff. And now there's, there's been a tremendous effort to get their arms around the numbers and the data. But you're right. In some cases, we don't know. And there's also a timeline problem, I believe. Absolutely there is. And, and that makes this analysis that we're trying to do a whole lot harder. Because different states have different reporting requirements, in different timelines. So it's hard for people like you two, to get the data that's required to make good policy recommendations I think it's hard to get the data on Garden and Reserve suicide. I think though, we can make recommendations. Because we know the rates of suicide are going up. And there have been a lot of programs that have started up. To try to reintegrate veterans, Guard Reserve, back into the community. One of the problems though, is it's still kind of a patchwork. Different states will have different programs. And if you're at the other end of a TV screen or a computer screen at 2 in the morning, and you're feeling isolated and lost. You may not know, how or who to talk to? Is it fair to say that when these wars go away. And when they wind down, the suicide rate will come back down? Or is this the sort of problem, that sort of persists beneath the surface. And we may be left with a, an, a hangover of suicides for years to come? I think it's fair to presume that this problem's going to persist for a while. And that we will have a more difficult time understanding the extent of the problem. And as the, the wars phase out. And the military sizes down, we'll have more individuals that are veterans. But not by their own choosing. They may or may not have employment. And we'll have less opportunity to watch them, to help them and to count them. If unfortunately, they do turn up as, as a suicide victims. This clearly will be a persistent problem and it's not just suicide, of course. It's post- traumatic stress disorder, it's pain. It maybe traumatic brain injury. So there can be a combination of factors. Often, they don't really want mental health treatment. And if you offer it, they may or may not go. But, boy they want a job. 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