Veteran Suicides
/Mental health is dominating the media right now and with suicide rates rising year on year in the UK, it is no surprise that military veterans are being caught up in this horrible trend. According to ONS statistics, In 2018 there were 6507 suicides of which three-quarters of these (4903) were among men. Specifically, middle-aged men (45-49) are the largest bracket for suicides. If you consider a typical soldier, who fights in a conflict such as Iraq or Afghanistan, will be aged between 18-40 during the conflict, many will now fall within that 45-49 bracket.
Statistics for specific veteran suicides are very hard to confirm - unlike most other countries, particularly the US, veteran suicide statistics just aren’t presented by the media in the UK. The MOD have made various pledges to study veteran suicides, but to date the figures remain unclear and the problem remains very much ignored by our government. The figures are thought to be between 40 and 200 veteran suicides per year, and any ex-military personnel will know which side of this figure they suspect be true by the number which are reported on ex-military social media sites. Every veteran will know of people they served with who have committed suicide and what is without doubt, is that suicide kills more soldiers than the actual combat.
To understand the problem of veteran suicides, you have to understand the life-cycle of a typical soldier:
Many come from difficult backgrounds and are often from unloving families.
They join the military and instantly they find a family - whether it be their peers who act as siblings or their superiors who act as their parents.
Deep friendships are formed resulting from the bonding experienced during challenging and often dangerous times.
They are ordered to fight and to experience things which are extremely tough mentally, day after day for up to 6 months at a time on operational deployments.
Seeing death and fearing death for prolonged periods has a huge impact, the results of which are often ‘bottled up’ for years afterwards.
On leaving the military, they receive a reasonably good amount of support for new careers but very little support for mental health issues.
The day they finally leave the military, there is no support at all provided by the MOD or any government departments specifically for veterans.
Once in the civilian world, veterans are left to fend for themselves mentally or rely on some amazing, but underfunded military mental health charities for support.
The optimum time for PTSD to manifest itself in a typical soldier is 14 years after the event which has traumatised them. Charities like Combat Stress are at the pinnacle of understanding mental health in veterans but there’s only so much they can do with limited funding and regardless, they mostly rely on veterans presenting themselves and asking for help - very rare amongst a community who are proud and from a culture of just ‘getting on with it’ where asking for help might be seen as a weakness. A soldier seeing things on the battlefield is no different to a Fire Fighter or a Police Officer seeing things in their day to day work, but the major difference is that the soldier doesn’t go home at the end of their shift and the likelihood that one of their closes mates may be maimed or killed means the chances of experiencing PTSD are far greater.
Funding for military mental health charities to help veterans should come from the MOD and the government, not solely from charity. Military charity revenue is on the sharp decline since the images of flag-draped coffins are no longer on the news and as the number of veterans that require help increases, so the problem is going to get far worse.
At Westacre, we do all we can to help our serving and retired military personnel to discuss mental health. In a job where you spend a lot of time alone, it can be difficult to stop your mind ‘wandering’ but we encourage all our personnel to speak up about mental health and talk to one another about this matter. It is often said that those closest to you are the best at identifying subtle changes which can be indicators for mental health issues - keep an eye on your buddies and remember to talk!
