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ARMY'S SUICIDE STRUGGLES CONTINUE --
2006 rate of self-inflicted deaths in Iraq
could exceed record set in 2005.
Story here...
http://www.courant.com/news/
nationworld/hc-soldiersuicide0131.artjan31,0,
2261892.story?coll=hc-headlines-home
Story below:
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Army's Suicide Struggles Continue
2006 Rate Of Self-Inflicted Deaths In Iraq Could Exceed Record Set In
2005
By LISA CHEDEKEL And MATTHEW KAUFFMAN
Courant Staff Writers
The suicide rate among soldiers in Iraq remained high in 2006 and could
reach record levels for the war, with 22 deaths ruled as self-inflicted
and more than a dozen other cases still under review, according to
Department of Defense records.
A report this month by the military's Defense Manpower Data Center shows
81 confirmed self-inflicted deaths in the Army in Iraq - 22 more than
the number of Army suicides reported by the military through 2005.
The number of confirmed suicides in 2006 matches the number in 2005,
when the Army's suicide rate in Iraq reached 19.9 deaths per 100,000,
the highest rate since the war began.
With as many as 17 other Army deaths still pending a final cause, the
2006 rate is likely to exceed the 2005 level. The total number of
deployed soldiers did not change significantly over the two years and
declined slightly during some months of 2006.
Veterans' advocates said the continued increase in suicides was
troubling, given that the military has made safeguarding soldiers'
mental health a priority. In 2006, suicide accounted for more than one
in four of all non-combat Army deaths in Iraq.
Among the 2006 confirmed suicides was Tina Priest, a 21-year-old soldier
from Austin, Texas, who killed herself in Iraq after reporting she was
raped by a fellow soldier and then being placed on antidepressants,
investigative records obtained by The Courant show. An Army psychologist
deemed her stable just days before her death.
Steve Robinson, director of government relations for Veterans for
America, said he was particularly disturbed by suicides in the war zone
because combat troops are supposed to be screened for mental health
issues before they join the military, before they are deployed and
throughout their careers.
"These people aren't the kind of people that you would think would take
this step," he said.
Robinson said the military has made some improvements to mental health
care, but needs to do more, including making mental health checks as
routine - and free of stigma - as vehicle or weapons inspections.
"This discussion about who's having problems is the same thing as
checking out your equipment. You've got to check out the human body
system. And they're just not doing it," Robinson said.
Col. Elspeth Ritchie, psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general,
said the Army was making a "concerted effort" to reduce the number of
suicides in the war zone, including revising suicide-prevention
training, with specialized programs targeted to recruits, commanders and
deployed soldiers.
"We are always concerned about any suicides. Every one is a tragedy,"
Ritchie said in a written statement to The Courant.
She said the revised training emphasizes "the importance of taking care
of one's buddies. We also remind leaders that they must encourage
help-seeking behaviors, recognize warning signs of suicidal behavior,
and refer for care, if needed."
Other initiatives put in place recently include new deployment
guidelines that expand mental health screening for troops heading to war
and set limits on when troops with psychiatric problems can be kept in
combat.
The guidelines were issued in November, in response to congressional
legislation prompted by a May series in The Courant. The Courant found
that some troops with pre-existing mental conditions were being sent
into combat and that others who developed problems in the war zone were
being kept there, in some cases with fatal consequences.
Investigative records show that Priest shot herself in Iraq in March,
days after being diagnosed and treated for "Acute Stress Disorder
consistent with Rape Trauma Syndrome." The records show she was
prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft, the antipsychotic Seroquel and the
sleeping aid Ambien.
Her family reported that she was in good spirits before her deployment,
the records say. But friends and relatives told investigators that
Priest's mental health declined sharply after the rape, and particularly
after the soldier she accused was not confined pending his trial.
"Priest stated that she can't do it anymore, that she just wanted
everything to be over with," a fellow soldier told investigators,
recounting a conversation with Priest days before her death.
Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that an Army private
charged with raping a young Iraqi woman and slaughtering her family last
year was found to have "homicidal ideations" by a combat-stress team,
three months before the attack, but was prescribed an antipsychotic and
retained in combat.
Top Army officials have been watching the suicide rate in Iraq closely
since the early months of the war, when a spike in self-inflicted deaths
prompted them to assemble a team of experts to examine ways to improve
the mental health care of deployed troops. When the number of suicides
dropped in 2004, to 10.5 deaths per 100,000 troops, military leaders
credited their renewed prevention efforts.
But when the numbers climbed back up in 2005, Army Surgeon General Kevin
C. Kiley and others downplayed the significance of the suicide rate,
saying they expected some variation from year to year.
Still, at a Pentagon briefing last month, Army officials made clear that
they hope to see suicide numbers fall off in 2007, as the new deployment
policy and other initiatives take effect. They said they had appointed a
suicide prevention coordinator for Iraq, and were in the process of
establishing a unit that will more closely analyze each suicide.
Kiley and Col. Edward Crandall, head of the Army's team of mental health
experts, have said they believe that most suicides are triggered by
relationship and other personal problems, and that troubled soldiers are
receiving appropriate care in the war zone.
Because the military does not identify victims of suicide, it was not
clear how many of the soldiers who killed themselves in 2006 were
serving second or third tours in Iraq, and how many were deployed for
the first time.
A December report by the mental health team found that soldiers surveyed
in 2005 - especially those who had served more than one deployment -
were more likely to report acute stress symptoms than those surveyed in
2004. The Courant's analysis of 2004 and 2005 suicides had found that
some soldiers had exhibited clear signs of combat-related stress before
they killed themselves, while others had serious mental health problems
before they deployed.
The mental health survey found that the stigma associated with seeking
mental health care was lifting, with fewer than 30 percent of soldiers
worried that they would be perceived as weak. But more than half the
soldiers surveyed also said the suicide-prevention training they
received was not sufficient to help them identify fellow soldiers at
risk. And, complicating the military's efforts to improve services to
soldiers, about a third of the mental health care providers serving in
Iraq reported experiencing a high "burnout" level.
Jay White, a former Army combat-stress counselor from Cromwell who
recently returned from Iraq, said he battled burnout during his second
deployment.
"I know that I definitely experienced it. No doubt about that," said
White, who now counsels returning veterans at the Hartford Vet Center in
Wethersfield. "You don't feel like going to work. You wish you could
call in sick, but there was never any of that. Or you'd see people and
you're like: `Oh my God, I don't feel like talking to anybody today.'
You'd just rather go hide in your trailer or something."
White said he saw evidence that some soldiers with pre-existing mental
health problems were being sent into combat - a problem highlighted by
The Courant, which found that fewer than 1 in 300 service members saw a
mental health professional before shipping out, despite a congressional
order that the military assess the mental health of all deploying
troops.
"You can't help but wonder what the screening policies are before
sending people over," White said. "There are people who have personality
disorders - maybe they're just more mild [so] they're not seen before
they get there - and then they get there and you're like, `Whoa, this is
somebody who probably shouldn't be here in the first place.'"
The new deployment guidelines issued in November include a directive
that troops who develop mental health problems during combat tours
should be sent home if their conditions do not significantly improve
within two weeks of treatment. It also directs that troops with mental
illnesses not expected to resolve within one year should be considered
unfit for military duty and evaluated for discharge.
Because the guidelines are still relatively new and allow clinicians
considerable discretion, it is not clear how they are being applied. A
task force headed by Kiley is expected to make recommendations for
further improvements to mental health screening and treatment when it
issues a report to the secretary of defense this spring.
The Army's 2005 suicide rate in Iraq was higher than the rate of 18.8
deaths per 100,000 troops in 2003, when the spike in suicides had
prompted alarm and action from Army mental health officials. The 2006
rate also is expected to exceed the 2003 level.
Throughout the Army, the suicide rate rose from 10.8 per 100,000 troops
in 2004 to 13 in 2005, the highest level since 1993.
The military this month released details of a separate, military-wide
2005 survey showing high levels of stress and depression among
active-duty service members - both those who have deployed and those who
have not. The survey of more than 16,000 service members found that
those who had deployed in the previous three years had greater stress,
higher rates of depression and anxiety, more alcohol and drug abuse and
twice as many suicide attempts.
In recent months, Army officials have enlisted the help of a network of
clergy to watch for warning signs of suicide. In an August letter to
Army chaplains, Maj. Gen. David H. Hicks, the chief of chaplains, said
an "increase in suicidal behavior on the part of our soldiers suggests
that the pressures on our Army may be greater than ever." He urged
chaplains to assist commanders, soldiers and families in learning to
"recognize warning signs and identify at-risk people. One suicide is too
many."
Contact Lisa Chedekel at
lchedekel@courant.com.
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Larry Scott
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