Pentagon Scrambles To Explain Rise In Soldier Suicides

From Times Online:

Rise in soldier suicides leaves Pentagon looking for answers

American soldiers are committing suicide in the greatest numbers since official records began in 1980, with the US Army at a loss to explain the phenomenon since a third of the dead have never been deployed in combat.
Suicides in the army alone have passed last year’s record of 140 — 141 in 2009 so far — in what campaigners called a “perfect storm” of stress, poor co-ordination between the branches of the Pentagon’s healthcare apparatus and the stigma attached to seeking psychiatric help in the military.
The upward trend has defied efforts to improve access to appropriate counselling for veterans returning from combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The figure for the first ten months of the year excludes 71 suicides among troops taken off active duty in 2009, and 42 in the US Marine Corps.
“This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way,” General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, said at a Pentagon briefing held to mark one of the bleakest statistical landmarks in eight years of war.

There was no easy explanation and no proven link between suicide and the stresses of combat and readjustment to home life, General Chiarelli insisted. Responding to claims that a culture of denial persists, especially among middle-ranking officers, that prevents soldiers seeking aid for fear of ridicule, he said that the army was working hard “to eliminate the stigma associated with receiving help”.
Roughly a third of this year’s suicides have been by soldiers taking their own lives in war zones, a third by returning soldiers and a third by those based permanently in the US or awaiting deployment overseas. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this week that however many reinforcements President Obama authorises for Afghanistan, US forces would be operating “in a stress window for the next couple of years”.
Even before the shooting rampage by an army psychiatrist at Fort Hood two weeks ago, Admiral Mullen had singled out the mental health of the forces in his command as critical to America’s war-fighting ability. Despite pilot schemes to improve “resilience training” before deployment and evaluation on returning from combat, the army says that it still needs 800 more behavioural health specialists and 300 more substance abuse counsellors.
Many military suicides can be traced in part to an inability to process the guilt of having killed in battle. “It can start with that,” said Kim Ruocco, who helps to run a support group for those bereaved by military suicides. “It seems to be a perfect storm of issues. Someone comes back with posttraumatic stress disorder . They get into difficulties with money and relationships. They turn to drink or drugs, and are unable to ask for help. They feel they are no longer of value to their unit; that the army and their family would be better off without them. That’s when they are at risk.”
Mrs Ruocco’s husband, a decorated attack helicopter pilot, hanged himself after returning from Iraq in 2004.