Study: war, stress not linked

WASHINGTON — Most suicides in the Army do not appear to be related to the strain of warfare and repeated deployments, a study released Thursday indicates.

Nearly 80 percent of suicides among soldiers in 2009 occurred in those with no deployment history or just one deployment, the Army said, suggesting a broader range of issues has driven an increasing number of soldiers to take their own lives.

"It is not just the deployments that's causing this problem," Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. "For us to blame this thing on the war would be wrong."

Army researchers visited six installations, including Fort Drum, in the yearlong effort to prepare the report.

That finding confirms what officials already have asserted, Gen. Chiarelli said, but counters a popular view in the public — and perhaps in the media — that war-related stress and long periods away from family are the culprits in the climbing suicide rate. A total of 239 soldiers, active and reserve, committed suicide in fiscal 2009.

While those are factors, Gen. Chiarelli said, they clearly are not the main contributor to Army suicides. Instead, the Army study found, a wide range of "at-risk behaviors" is associated with suicides or attempted suicides, including drug and alcohol use and criminal behavior.

The key to preventing suicides, Gen. Chiarelli said, is to spot at-risk soldiers early on and help them work through the stresses and behavior that could be contributing to suicidal tendencies.

Asked to draw one major message from the report, Gen. Chiarelli said, "Pay attention to soldiers that demonstrate high-risk behavior."

Among other measures, the Army needs to reduce the stigma of seeking mental health care, Gen. Chiarelli said, but also must repair gaps in Army health promotion, risk reduction and suicide prevention policies. Army policies and standards already in place need to be more closely followed, the report found, blaming a decade of war and Army transformation for letting policies slide.

"No one could have foreseen the impact of nine years of war on our leaders and soldiers," the report found. "As a result of the protracted and intense operational tempo, the Army has lost its former situational awareness and understanding of good order and discipline within its ranks."

Army researchers found the most at-risk group is not necessarily 18-year-old recruits, but older men and women who join the Army, perhaps at 28 or 29. That group has the highest suicide rate — triple that of teenagers joining the force, Gen. Chiarelli said.

In that situation, he said, older soldiers often have children, homes and other anchors in life that are disrupted by Army life.

The best approach in that situation may be for commanding officers to pay particular attention to older recruits and talk to them more often in general, Gen. Chiarelli said.

On the other hand, Gen. Chiarelli said, younger recruits often are less resilient than their older peers, perhaps explaining why those with one deployment have a higher suicide rate than those with more than one. In addition, he said, 18- and 19-year-olds in general are a higher-risk group for suicide.

Recruiting, too, plays a role, as soldiers might come to the Army already prone to high-risk behavior or to suicide, Gen. Chiarelli said. But recruiters do not have access to recruits' medical records, and the National Institutes of Health, reviewing recruiting policies and practices, indicates "we've got as good as we can," he said.

Army officials are studying the report and beginning to frame policies to implement its recommendations, Gen. Chiarelli said. He said the Army will pay especially close attention to soldiers returning from combat as the Army increases their "dwell time" at home to two or even three years for each year or nine months deployed.

Army Secretary John M. McHugh said in a statement, "The dedicated effort behind this report sends a clear message to our force that we take the resiliency of our soldiers and families very seriously. This effort is part of our culture to look closely at ourselves, and to make continuous improvements in our capability — but most importantly, to reduce the number of soldiers we lose to suicide."