Women Veterans at Much Higher Risk of Suicide Than Women Civilians, Report Says

The report—which paints a horrifying picture of suicide rates among former military service members by breaking down the data by state, age group, and gender, plus the most common suicide methods—is "unprecedented in its comprehensive analysis of suicide rates among all U.S. Veterans," the authors note.

After examining more than 55 million veteran records from 1970 to 2014, spanning all 50 states and four territories, researchers found that an average of 20 veterans died each day in 2014; Montana, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico had the highest rates; 67 percent of all veteran suicide deaths were the result of firearm injuries; and the demographic of female veterans that had the greatest rates of suicide were those ages 18–29.

"These findings are deeply concerning," VA Secretary Dr. David J. Shulkin said in a press release, "which is why I made suicide prevention my top clinical priority. I am committed to reducing Veteran suicides through support and education."

According to a fact sheet breaking down the data for women, the suicide rate for female veterans in 2014 was 19 per 100,000—that's nearly half the male veteran suicide rate of 37.2 per 100,000. But between the years of 2001 and 2014, "the suicide rate among women veterans increased to a greater degree (62.4 percent) than the suicide rate among male veterans (29.7 percent)," the report states. Additionally, researchers found that since 2013, there has been "no statistically significant difference" between the deaths of women who did and didn't access services through the VA.

Kate Hendricks Thomas is an associate professor of health promotion at Charleston Southern University who serves on the board of directors for Service Women's Action Network. She tells Broadly that the fact that this report was created is encouraging, but she wasn't surprised by its findings, particularly as they relate to women.

The reason these gender differences in suicide rates exist has a lot to do with institutional and social barriers, she explains. "We're more likely to have experiences on active duty that are proverbial kicks in the teeth. And then when we get out, military women don't have the same access to veteran services—whether you're talking about an institution, like the Veterans Health Administration, or you're talking about an informal, non-profit veteran-serving organization that's meant to reach us too but never plans for childcare or you don't see any women on the leadership team."

Thomas says there's an "entire sea of goodwill that's trying to help military veterans reintegrate into the civilian community," but women veterans in particular struggle to admit they need assistance. "When we actually survey military women, that stigma of reaching out a hand is higher among the women because while they were in the service, they were constantly having to prove themselves against stereotype expectation. There's this notion that, 'I'm a fricking Amazon, I don't need help, I don't have problems, I'm never going to let you see a chink in the armor or weakness because while I was on active duty, if I showed weakness, I got run over.' We're just culturally programmed to not do that, to act like everything's OK."

In order to address these alarming suicide rates among women veterans, Thomas says an important first step is to acknowledge they exist. The data compiled by the VA, she says, is "an outstanding opportunity to say we're not reaching military women as they transition."

"Anytime you're talking about programming for active duty or veterans, you have to think about these stigma issues," Thomas continues. "You have to think about the warrior narrative these women have had to embrace just to make it in what is very much potentially an unfriendly environment. It's really hard to raise a hand to say 'Hey, I'm struggling.' I think that's a big reason that we see these high suicide numbers."

If you need support, you can contact the Veterans Crisis Line at 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1; text to 838255, or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat .