VA Releases Report on Nation’s Largest Analysis of Veteran Suicide

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has released its findings from the nation’s most comprehensive analysis of veteran suicide rates in the U.S., in which VA examined more than 55 million veteran records from 1979 to 2014 from every state. The effort advances VA’s knowledge from the previous report in 2012, which was primarily limited to information on veterans who used VA health services or from mortality records. The report found that, since 2001, U.S. adult civilian suicides increased 23 percent, while veteran suicide rates increased 32 percent. After controlling for age and gender, this made the risk of suicide 21 percent greater for veterans. The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention has released a statement on the report, which includes a list of related resources.