After war, a lifetime of struggle
69.3%
22
PERCENTAGE OF ALL
VETERAN SUICIDES
ARE OVER AGE 50
20
16.5%
18
60-69
50-59
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
“The problem was trying to find
a way that would definitely do it
and look like an accident,” Mike
said. “Never thinking about what
it would look like to my family.”
Jackie is a lively brunette with
a master’s degree in counseling
and a growing family, and during this time she was frantically
looking to get Mike help. But
she couldn’t find it. One day she
phoned the local Vet Center, a
drop-in place with peer counselors that is funded by the VA
but free of its bureaucracy. She
asked if she could bring in her
husband because he needed help
quickly. No, she says she was
told, he has to come in himself.
He has to ask for help.
He’s uncomfortable asking for
help, she said. He says, guys have
lost their legs, help should go to
2002
80+
2001
14.2%
16
2000
70-79
20%
1999
18.6%
PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
Estimated count of veteran suicides per day:
SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF VETERAN AFFAIRS SUICIDE DATA REPORT 2012
“... when you got hit like
that, you got out of the
wreckage and said, ‘Whew!
We made it!’ … There was no
going to get a head scan
or anything like that.”
them fir