“Every man has his breaking point” was a common refrain from military doctors in World War II.
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. This awareness campaign is an important reminder of how many people take their own life when they reach their breaking point, by feeling like they have no other option.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, mental health conditions that involve suicidal thoughts can affect anyone, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or financial background.
{mosads}With that being said, one demographic that is disproportionately affected by the suicide epidemic is veterans. According to the Veterans Affairs (VA), the risk of suicide is 21 percent greater for veterans than for other civilians. And, according to a VA analysis of veteran suicide by state, female veterans and veterans in rural areas are at highest risk.
In a heartrending and disconcerting trend, some veterans have even resorted to taking their own life in the parking lot of their local VA healthcare facility, suggesting that there is still much work to do in raising awareness and taking action in addressing veterans’ mental health needs.
Beyond raising awareness, for fellow service members, family and loved ones affected, channeling grief and energy into positive actions can go a long way. Although suicide — whether veteran or non-veteran — is inevitably a painful and sensitive topic, one of the benefits of awareness months is an ability to openly discuss a topic that unfortunately remains taboo in our society. And some veterans groups are utilizing new methods such as social media and art therapy to do so.
For example, when 28-year-old Iraq war veteran Cody Hayes Winslow unexpectedly died by suicide in December 2016, his brother, Kyle Winslow, and his partner, Annika Vogt, found a hard drive of photographs Cody had taken while deployed in the Middle East.
In reviewing Cody’s photos, the adage that a picture can say a thousand words rang true for his family. In an effort to heal their grief by honoring the life of their loved one, they decided to produce a book of Cody’s photos — a group of warzone vignettes that serve as the final narrative from the young Marine who never recounted them verbally.
They hope that the book and its story would contribute to the dialogue on proactive mental health care and the complexities of entering civilian life. According to The Cody Hayes Winslow Project’s website, “it is through community awareness that we can best produce actionable results and long-lasting change.”
Moreover, there is a growing acknowledgment that art therapy, such as photography, painting or pottery, has the ability to not only change lives but also to save them.
Similarly, Mission 22, an organization that is “united in the war against veterans suicide” notes that the war against suicide at home is more deadly than all of our combat missions around the world. Likewise, in an effort to use more modern and less traditional means to help society better understand the issue of veteran suicide, Mission 22 encourages people to share images of the number 22 on social media with the hashtag #Mission22.
More importantly, however, the organization notes that there is still a serious stigma around mental health, and recent studies show that usage of social media can have tremendous value to end such stigma and make true progress.
What organizations like The Cody Hayes Winslow Project and Mission22 recognize is that, like all well-intended movements, suicide prevention requires more than awareness but also action. In the modern era of so many social media campaigns and hashtags, there can be a false sense of accomplishment that accompanies awareness campaigns and detracts from real results. Methods such as art therapy and social media are an excellent starting point, but of course not the ending point. Arriving at real results, which would involve eliminating the veterans suicide epidemic, is much more complicated when dealing with such a sensitive issue like the stigma around mental health.
To this end, curbing veterans suicide has received bipartisan support in Congress, as evidenced by the unanimous passage in both the House and Senate of the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act in 2015. Despite the robust policy support ending veterans suicide received from lawmakers, a fact sheet issued by the VA in July 2016 showed that an average of 20 veterans still die from suicide each day.
Thus, in order for suicide prevention awareness month to truly have an impact, we must move beyond the methods that get our attention, and move toward decreasing the stigma around mental health, not just for veterans but for all Americans.
Modern societies have always struggled with pain that they cannot see. In the 1700s, people with mental health issues were often thrown in jail due to lack of understanding. After the Civil War, military physicians began to document unusual stress experienced by soldiers. In World War I, it became known as shell shock, and the terminology then changed to combat exhaustion during World War II.
Although the National Mental Health Act provided for an expansion of mental health facilities in 1946, since that time, American society has continued to struggle with accepting mental health. The recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been a painful reminder of this fact for many veterans and their families.
The easiest way to translate awareness into action, beyond a monetary donation, sharing a viral video, or using certain hashtags, is to use your voice. Perhaps if more people were willing to call out judgmental views on mental illness, and talk more openly about access to treatment, more people would seek help before resorting to suicide.
Awareness months have both their benefits and their drawbacks. How to fully incorporate the benefits of less traditional methods such as art therapy, and how to fully harness the power of social media, are positive works in progress. Certainly, imperfect advocacy through awareness campaigns has the potential to save more lives than ignorance and inaction do.
Rory E. Riley-Topping has dedicated her career to ensuring accountability within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to care for our nation’s veterans. She is the principal at Riley-Topping Consulting and has served in a legal capacity for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the National Veterans Legal Services Program, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and can be reached on Twitter @RileyTopping.