I perceive that battlefield medicine improved so much after WW-2 and from between the Korean and Vietnam wars that battlefield medicine improved so much that more injured soldiers survived their wounds. So neither did Congress nor the Veterans Admin ever prepared for an increasing number of soldiers coming home with broken bodies. Instead of being brought home in a body bag.
Accepting 16-18 soldiers suicides each day, is this just a covert genocide? That is abt 6,500 fewer veterans to take care of every year. I wonder how millions of dollars that is saving Uncle Sam for not having to fund proper treatment for all those veterans who VOLUNTEERED to protect our freedom and ended up coming home with “broken bodies”, PTSD or many other expensive health issues.
Average Number of Veteran Suicides Per Day
In recent years, the most authoritative data indicates that an average of 17.6 veterans die by suicide each day in the United States123. This number has varied slightly each year, but recent government reports and analyses agree on figures between 16 and 18 daily.
The Role of Inadequate Health Care and Pain Management
It is well established that inadequate access to health care, particularly mental health and pain management, is a significant factor among veterans who die by suicide45.
Key Findings
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Mental Health Access: Veterans who experience delays or gaps in mental health services have a higher risk of suicide. Barriers to quality care, long wait times, and an overburdened VA system are repeatedly cited as contributing to the crisis45.
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Chronic Pain and Suicide: Chronic pain is strongly linked with increased suicide risk in veterans. Pain that is poorly managed or untreated can lead to severe psychological distress, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts6.
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Pain and Mental Health Comorbidity:
Specific Numbers Related to Pain and Health Care
While the reports do not attribute a specific number of daily veteran suicides solely to “inadequate health care” or “pain management,” public health research and VA documents show:
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Pain (physical, emotional, or both) was identified as a factor in over 50% of veteran suicides reviewed by VA Behavioral Health Autopsy teams7.
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The majority of veterans who die by suicide have at least one chronic medical or mental health condition—chronic pain and untreated PTSD being particularly prominent6.
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Proper pain management has been shown to reduce suicidal thoughts and self-harm behaviors, but access to such care remains inconsistent6.
Conclusion
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The average daily veteran suicide rate is 17.6, with inadequate health care—including poor access to or management of pain—playing a documented, significant role in many of these deaths12456.
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However, there is no official daily statistic that isolates veteran suicides caused purely by inadequate health care or pain management. Instead, these issues are recognized as key risk factors contributing to the larger crisis.
If you or any veteran is struggling, reaching out to local mental health resources or the VA crisis line is strongly encouraged.
- https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/data-sheets/2024/2024-Annual-Report-Part-2-of-2_508.pdf
- https://news.va.gov/137221/va-2024-suicide-prevention-annual-report/
- https://ptsdlawyers.com/how-many-veterans-commit-suicide-a-day/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5563010/
- https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=pjh
- https://mentalhealth.va.gov/MENTALHEALTH/suicide_prevention/docs/FSTP-Chronic-Pain.pdf
- https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/docs/data-sheets/2023/2023-National-Veteran-Suicide-Prevention-Annual-Report-FINAL-508.pdf
- https://www.prainc.com/22-veteran-suicides-a-day/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_veteran_suicide
- https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA1363-1-v2.html
- https://www.veterans.nd.gov/news/why-are-so-many-older-veterans-committing-suicide
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10031829/
- https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/22/12/2846/6373910
- https://americanaddictioncenters.org/veterans/suicide-among-veterans
- https://www.in.gov/issp/
- https://www.va.gov/painmanagement/
- https://missionrollcall.org/veteran-voices/articles/the-state-of-veteran-suicide/
- https://www.vaoig.gov/reports/hotline-healthcare-inspection/inadequate-care-patient-who-died-suicide-medical-unit
- https://phs.weill.cornell.edu/news/linking-va-and-non-va-data-study-risk-suicide-chronic-pain-patients
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/united-states-military-veteran-suicide
Filed under: General Problems
We (chronic pain patients) have mostly known about this for years. When there is what certainly appears to be an Aktion T4 going on in our country, where medical care is even denied our veterans, how the hell can we fight it?
So sad. So tragic. I had been taking care of so many VETS in my clinic until they hauled me off in handcuffs. My attorneys refused to seek out the VETS and fill the courtroom with them and their testimonies. I was being held without bail because this was my strategy or at least part of it. the lawyers do not really work for you, they work for the courts and judges. But the fact is that the vets are again stomped on by the government. No body wins. We have turned America into a 3rd world country when it comes to pain management !
When I heard they were taking pain meds away from Cancer Patients I couldn’t believe it! The first group of people I thought about was the Veteran that got the Agent Orange during the war! How dare they do that to our Veterans!
I guess I can say I am glad that the stats are finally starting to surface. That doesn’t distract from how disturbing I find it that veterans have to go through the same thing that civilians have to go through as if either of us deserved it.