Health & Wellness

The following table indicates the percentage of 2019 #BSFSurvey respondents who reported struggling with suicidal ideation, (diagnosed) depression, (diagnosed) anxiety, substance abuse, PTSD, or sleep disorders.

In 2019, 4% of spouses and 6% of service members indicated that they had seriously considered attempting suicide within the past year. Similarly, 4% of those respondents who were spouses of Veterans and 9% of Veteran respondents reported the same. Furthermore, 6% of National Guard family and 3% of Reserve family (service member and spouse) respondents reported suicidal thoughts within the past year.

Nearly half (48%) of military, Veteran, National Guard, and Reserve family respondents who reported they had either seriously considered attempting suicide or had actually attempted suicide in the past year reported they had received professional help after the most recent incident. However, not all who received these services found it to be what they needed. Forty percent of those who had received services after the most recent incident stated they did not find those services to be helpful. In contrast, 8% of those respondents reported they had sought help after the most recent incident but had been unable to obtain it. The presence of challenges associated with these help-seeking behaviors (i.e., unhelpful support services and the inability to obtain services) is alarming, even in light of the small number of responses.

For various reasons, 44% of military, Veteran, National Guard, and Reserve family respondents did not receive help after their most recent incident of considering suicide. Forty-eight percent of active-duty, National Guard, and Reserve family respondents reported one reason why they chose not to seek professional help for the most recent incident of suicidal thoughts or attempts was fear that it would hurt their career or the career of their service member.

There is an opportunity for suicide prevention efforts to shift messaging from a mental health concern, which relies on the individual to seek services, to a public health issue. This could begin with screening during routine health care appointments for military families. Existing research suggests that 52% of service members who died by suicide received some form of health care (not necessarily suicide-related health care) within 90 days prior to death.

The DOD has implemented several efforts to address suicide within the military and Veteran community. Yet, suicide and barriers to mental health care remain prevalent. The complexity of the issue demands a multi-faceted approach, requiring systemic and cultural shifts ranging from critical incident response to comprehensive prevention, in addition to improved training.

A recent cluster of suicides among service members prompted public speculation around the potential connection between a stressful workload with long hours and suicidal actions. In this year’s sample, service member respondents with suicidal thoughts in the past year reported working 58 hours per week, while service members without suicidal thoughts worked 50 hours per week. While drawing implications from this data is very limited because the sample size is small, further research around the connection between work culture, workload, stress, and suicide is warranted.

High suicide literacy (knowledge about suicide) and low suicide stigma are associated with greater intention to seek help for suicide, indicating that cultural changes, such as reducing stigma for suicide and help-seeking and increasing knowledge about suicide, are an essential component to suicide prevention. In addition, there is a dire need to examine and track suicide among other subpopulations outside of service members and Veterans. The DOD Annual Suicide Report released in 2019 was the federal government’s first to systemically document deaths by suicide among military family members along with those of service members—an effort that should continue. The DOD can devote careful attention to assessing factors associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts as well as interventions that may prevent or reduce the likelihood of such occurrences. As the DOD is already piloting interventions for service members, there is also a need to pilot similar programs for family members.

Furthermore, one of the biggest obstacles health systems face in preventing suicide is losing touch with people when they’re vulnerable. As more attention is provided on examining military family suicide rates, future research opportunities can seek to more fully understand the obstacles military families may face in obtaining appropriate, effective professional services after suicide-related episodes, especially because the military population can be so migrant.

Military, Veteran, National Guard, and Reserve Families Who Had Seriously Considered Attempting Suicide within the Past Year

Help-Seeking Behaviors of Military, Veteran, National Guard, and Reserve Families Who Had Seriously Considered Attempting Suicide/Had Attempted Suicide Within the Past Year