The military's masculine culture may make service members less likely to reach out for help for their trauma, because they don't want to look weak in front of others, it added. The Watson Institute said the military must reconsider and change the parts of its culture that "overburden" service members with moral responsibility or blame for actions or consequences that were largely out of their control, and "overwhelmingly produces feelings of self-blame, guilt and weakness." The military also trains service members to put the needs of accomplishing the mission above their own well-being, the report said. Suicide rates are also higher for those who were divorced or separated, or facing financial difficulties. Of the troops who die by suicide, the report said, a disproportionate number are young white, non-Hispanic men in their 20s, in the Army or Marine Corps. society to manage the mental health costs of our current conflicts," the report said. "High suicide rates mark the failure of the U.S. The high level of trauma of all kinds - mental, physical, moral and sexual stress and burnout troops and veterans have been exposed to the military's culture and training access to guns and difficulty reintegrating into civilian life are also contributing to high suicide rates, the institute found. While the nation has been at war nearly two decades, the Watson Institute said, the public is largely disinterested. "These compounding traumas contribute to worsening suicide rates as service members deploy and redeploy after sustaining severe injuries," it added.īut there are other factors at play as well. Improving medical treatment has also kept wounded service members in uniform longer than previously, allowing some to redeploy after sustaining severe trauma, the institute said. allies in Afghanistan, cited by the report, found that nearly half of all deployed service members had experienced at least one TBI, and nearly 13% had suffered more than three TBIs. Studies suggest that between 8% and 20% of post-9/11 service members have sustained at least one - frequently more - TBIs throughout their career, the report said. One of the wars' signature weapons, the improvised explosive device, led to a wave of traumatic brain injuries or "polytraumas" - cases where wounded troops sustained multiple injuries or severe injuries in at least two areas of the body. The report said some elements unique to the wars of the past two decades may have led to a "suicide epidemic." In the past, active-duty service members have died by suicide less frequently than civilians.īut the suicide rate in the military now has surpassed the age-adjusted civilian rate, the report said, and suicide rates among post-9/11 war veterans surpass civilian rates. This represents a significant - and "deeply alarming" - shift, it said.
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