Veteran suicide coalition targets service gaps as new VA report shows suicide rate rising

SAN ANTONIO – A couple of years ago, Chris Ford lost his son-in-law to suicide.

“Suicide is very complex, unfortunately. There’s no single pathway to suicidal thoughts or behaviors,” Ford said.

It’s something Ford said he already knew. He has spent much of his professional career trying to lower the number of veteran suicides specifically.

He is currently the principal leading the partnership Face the Fight, which has poured more than $42 million into programs that help veterans nationwide.

Face the Fight was created by USAA, Reach Resilience, and the Humana Foundation.

The VA’s veteran suicide report, recently released, compiles 2023 data and shows 6,398 suicides nationwide, including 581 in Texas.

Most concerning to the experts was the suicide rate per 100,000 veterans, which rose from 34.7 in 2022 to 35.2 in 2023.

Experts from Face the Fight said that’s because overall, there are fewer veterans in recent years, and veterans are getting older. Yet, the suicides are still increasing.

The report, while difficult to see, has helped Face the Fight to identify service gaps and prioritize them.

“One thing’s very clear in our community. More than 70% of veterans who die by suicide do so by firearm,” Ford said. “So we’re really focusing on how can we create more time and distance between firearms and veterans in a moment of crisis through their safe storage.”

Ford said within the military, there is a large focus on peer training called the Overwatch Project, teaching soldiers to communicate with each other about firearms and suicide.

“Training hundreds of thousands of soldiers and guardsmen and reservists on how to have these difficult conversations with peers they’re worried about, and they’re highly interactive, role-played settings,” Ford said. “This isn’t some click-through PowerPoint presentation on your computer. The feedback from these soldiers who are trained in this is incredible.”

However, he acknowledges it’s easier to get people to engage when they’re still in uniform. Once people become veterans, it’s harder to keep track of them and make sure they have all the answers they need.

“If I wanted to store my firearm outside of the home, because things aren’t going well right now, where do I do that? How do I do that? Can I get it back? All of these questions,” said UT Health San Antonio Associate Professor Dr. David Rozek, who is Face the Fight’s Senior Scientific Advisor.

While Rozek is a psychologist himself, he knows the focus can’t just be clinical. He said it needs to be on suicide prevention training for the people closest to these veterans: family, friends, workplaces, or businesses that veterans interact with.

“Where do we know there’s stress related to suicide? Financial institutions. So your bank, if it has some sort of suicide screening, for example, or has some way of identifying that the veteran is at risk, and then they have some way to connect them to the next step,” Rozek said. ”It’s not just about knowing the person’s at risk. It’s saying, ‘Oh, I know, and I know what to do now.’”

Right now, Face the Fight is developing a toolkit that different businesses could use when they encounter a high-risk veteran.

Ford said they are also finding every possible way to address the veterans’ issues holistically and to look for all the signs.

Ford said social isolation, insomnia and homelessness are comorbid risk factors that have correlations to suicide risk.

“We know that it’s really important to provide holistic treatment. You can’t just treat someone with therapy if they’re living in a cardboard box or they’re worried about food on their table,” Ford said. “That we’re being thoughtful about all of the wraparound services they may need so that they can return to a life of thriving.”

Members of Face the Fight know this will all take time, but they want the public to know they’re not giving up.

“It’s not a quick fix,” Rozek said. “It’s something that does take time, but I think there’s a lot of hope here still.”

“We know we’re having a positive impact on military and veteran and family lives,” Ford said. “We see it in our data, and we hear it from families themselves directly.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or thoughts of suicide, veterans can call 988 and then press “1” for veteran-specific support. You can also text TALK or HELLO to 741-741 or go to crisistextline.org.

Veterans can also seek out additional support at Face the Fight.

You can also reach out to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) or the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) at 210-223-7233 (SAFE) or 800-316-9241. You can also text NAMI to 741-741.

Read also:

• Students help prevent suicide in peers by joining Hope Squads on San Antonio campuses