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| Today: 10 July 2009 Time: 11:52 AM |
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| Army Suicides reach record high - study |
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| Military and Security 1/31/2008 9:16:00 PM |
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WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (KUNA) -- Suicide rates among active-duty US soldiers
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have reached a record high, according to
mental-health statistics made public on Thursday.
In 2007, 2,100 soldiers attempted to commit suicide or injured themselves,
compared to the 2002 statistics of 350 such cases, said the US Army Medical
Command Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
The report said more than half of the suicide attempts occurred after
returning to the United States.
This is the highest number on record since the Army began keeping track in
1980, according to an internal draft study, which reported that 121 soldiers
committed suicide in 2007, an increase of nearly 20 percent more than in 2006.
The author of the report, Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, the Army's top
psychiatrist, concluded that the length and frequency of oversea deployments
are a key contributing factor to attempted and successful suicides.
The study also found that legal, financial and occupational problems and
failed personal relationship were also frequent causes.
Ritchie said the numbers of attempted suicides "are continuing to rise
despite a lot of things we are doing now and have been doing".
The study's findings, based on over 200 interviews with soldiers stationed
in the US and abroad, acknowledged the Army's shortcoming in handing the large
number of post-traumatic stress disorders as a consequence of the Iraq and
Afghanistan. (end)
hy.bs
KUNA 312116 Jan 08NNNN
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