A Pentagon report has found that 123 military spouses died from suicide in 2017.
The report, which comes as the military battles a rise in troop and veteran suicides, gives the first insights into military family suicide statistics based on the most current data. It also found 63 children of military members committed suicide in the same year. Seventeen of the spouses were service members themselves.
For male spouses, the rate was nearly triple that of female spouses. The rates, however, were generally comparable to those of the U.S. population. “Suicide rates for military spouses and dependents were generally comparable to U.S. population rates after accounting for age and sex,” the report reads.
The suicide rate among male military children was nearly half that of the general population, with a rate of 5.2 per 100,000 among military male children, compared to 9.3 per 100,000 in the U.S. population.
There has been criticism of the length of time it took for the figures to be released. The 2015 defense budget bill required the Pentagon to collect suicide data on military dependents. Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Patty Murray of Washington wrote to the Department of Defense last year asking for the information.
“We know these suicides occur, but there is presently a lack of information necessary to understand, prevent, and respond to these tragedies,” the letter read.
The Pentagon, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other federal and state agencies have been working to curb the military and veteran suicide rates for several years, yet suicide numbers have continued to rise. The Pentagon report found that 541 military members died from suicide in 2018, with the suicide rate for service members increasing from 18.5 per 100,000 to 24.8 per 100,000 between 2013 and 2018. DOD data also shows that about 6,000 veterans have committed suicide each year for more than a decade, a rate 1.5 times higher than that of nonveterans.
Both the Pentagon and VA have instituted several programs to combat the rising suicide trend among troops and veterans, including 24-hour crisis help lines that connect veterans and troops to professional mental health counselors. Officials are now trying to raise awareness for these programs and the national suicide epidemic itself.
“The more that we normalize it out in the community, the more it normalizes the discussion within our systems, which I think is helpful,” Dr. Lisa Kearney, acting deputy director of suicide prevention for the VA, told the Washington Examiner this month. “The more we talked about cancer, it became normal. And it became a thing that we all fought together in public health. That’s what we need to be doing with suicides, too.”
