Army Review Finds Alarming Rates of Suicide and Risky Behavior
August 3rd, 2010
Spurred by suicide rates significantly higher than in the civilian population, a recent Army review also finds high rates of new recruits who are inclined toward risky behavior. The study suggests that new soldiers enlist knowing the likelihood of seeing combat, so they may be more comfortable with uncertainty and putting themselves at risk. This translates into higher rates of suicide, suicide attempt, and abuse of drugs and alcohol. What’s more, soldiers cited for violations that could merit discharge are less likely to actually be discharged or enrolled in the appropriate treatment program. The review’s authors attribute this to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and commanders’ desire to keep as many soldiers on the ground as possible. The study indicates a need for reassessed priorities to ensure that solders who are high risk for mental health problems get the treatment they need.
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all these reports about army personnel committing suicide and getting involved in risky behavior is very sad to say the least.there is a clear need for better counseling and treatment services in the army and these need to be addressed as early as possible.lets just hope the proposed combat-role pull-out from iraq holds good and at least some of our army personnel are relieved.
So the guys who already have a tendency to engage in risky behavior are the ones who are most likely to enlist? I would think that these would be the hardest soldiers to train, they would be willing to go all gung ho but could you rein it in enough to really teach them how to use the knowledlge they are given?
You may be a hero, a warrior, but you are not indispensable and are still prone to all the problems just like every other person! I guess our troops need to be told this because of their erratic behavior. Not just what is mentioned in this article but I have come across a lot of videos of our troops doing drugs while on duty, on several web-sites.
the reason, I think, for such erratic behavior is because of lack of satisfaction they get from their job, their duty. There are over-worked, have to remain away from family for months together and are a part of two wars that just don’t seem to end and hold no national-pride, even if we discount the condemnations that we get of both the wars.
I for one think that the military fosters even more of this risky kind of behavior. You may think that you are a bad a** before you join and then you get in and they turn you into this fighting machine that is only sure to make you think that you are even more of that bad a** that you already perceived yourself to be in the first place. I know that the military is supposed to train you to be a soldier and to give discipline but you know that for some young people who join it becomes that ego booster that they have been looking for too and for many of them they did not need even more of that!
reading about all these suicides in the army,I just think suicides are killing more of our personnel than the combats and the wars themselves and it is very ad that they are turning into people who are just out there and stressed and not knowing when they’ll be back home.
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