The dual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to a variety of international and national glitches, many of which were predicted before the wars even began. However, one of the more unanticipated consequences has been a sharp increase in military suicides.
John Violanti, a UB research professor and Vietnam War veteran, is currently preparing a study to change the way army veterans' mental health is examined. Violanti hopes that the U.S. Army will use the study's method on 3,600 soldiers returning from war in August, in order help to reduce and keep down the recent spike in suicides among the veterans.
A proposal has been sent to the military in an attempt to scrap the Army's current system of mental health examinations.
Currently, the standard method involves giving a self-report to each soldier once they have returned home in order to assess the soldier's level of mental health and happiness. The new examination, which Violanti describes as a much more efficient test, is able to measure reactions to words associated with self-harm as well as those that are not.
"These implicit association tests that were developed by Harvard are much more subtle than a self-report and cause subconscious feelings to show the roots of their real feelings ultimately increasing their chances to identify problems and get any help they may need to save their own lives," Violanti said.
This new testing method is needed during a time when veterans have returned home with severe mental issues, according to Violanti.
"There has been a spike in military suicides for the vets that have returned home [to the United States] as well as soldiers still away at war," said Violanti. "Numbers have spiked from four reported in January 2008 to 24 in January 2009, which is a 6-fold increase that has continued to go up every year."
Military statistics say that generally 11 of every 100,000 soldiers commit suicide, yet so far this year the rate has been approximately 20 suicides for every 100,000 soldiers. By the end of 2008, a total of around 128 American soldiers had committed suicide in addition to the estimated 33,000 others throughout the entire U.S.
Marines constitute the largest amount of military suicides.
"These statistics don't sound like large numbers in relation to the world population, but really are pretty significant when you stop to realize they are the number of people who are so depressed that they took their own lives in one country or military system alone," said Christopher Paglia, a junior communication major.
Violanti determined through research that the problem seems to be that soldiers do not want to report their suicidal thoughts.
"They feel they shouldn't feel those thoughts of suicide and depression because it might cause them to be dishonorably discharged, made fun of, [or be] seen as unfit for the army," Violanti said.
Violanti has studied suicide among police officers for 16 years and is currently running a pilot study of the computer-based psychological test assessing Buffalo police officers, which is funded by the American Foundation for Prevention of Suicide.
"[Police] face the same traumatic situations as army vets do, so it's a good analogy to start the study with," Violanti said. "If funding goes through for our military proposal of the study and is applied efficiently afterwards, I believe it will ultimately greatly reduce suicide numbers among army vets."
Violanti believes that these new techniques will reveal emotions that can remain hidden with other tests.
"Suicide is a very complex behavior. Combat is one of the most stressful situations of your life [as a soldier] and these soldiers are being shot at and are seeing things they will never forget," Violanti said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
