VA official accused of covering up suicide rates
Filed under: Military Affairs, United States — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on April 25, 2008 @ 5:04 pm CEST
Recently recovered e-mails have given many people - especially Democrats - the impression that the chief mental health official of the Veterans Affairs Department, Dr. Ira Katz, tried to ‘conceal the number of suicides by veterans. An e-mail message from Katz disclosed this week as part of a lawsuit that went to trial in San Francisco starts with “Shh!” and claims 12,000 veterans a year attempt suicide while under department treatment.’
“Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?” the e-mail asks.
Another e-mail ’said an average of 18 war veterans kill themselves each day — and five of them are under VA care when they commit suicide.’
In response, several Democrats are calling on Katz to resign. “Dr. Katz’s irresponsible actions have been a disservice to our veterans, and it is time for him to go,” said Murray, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. “The No. 1 priority of the VA should be caring for our veterans, not covering up the truth.”
“It is completely outrageous that the federal agency charged with helping veterans would instead cover up the hard truth — that more and more Americans coming home after bravely fighting for their country are suffering from mental illnesses and in the most tragic circumstances, committing suicide,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “Anyone at the VA who is involved in this cover-up should be removed immediately.”
Not only are Democrats calling for Dr. Katz’s resignation, they’ve also introduced legislation that would ‘require the VA to report to Congress within 180 days the number of veterans who have died by suicide since Jan. 1, 1997, and continue reports annually. Harkin’s office said statistics provided earlier this year by the VA showed that 790 veterans under VA care attempted suicide in 2007. That figure is contradicted by the e-mail revealed this week.’
1 Claudia
April 25, 2008 @ 7:46 pm CESTThe cover-up itself if scandalous, and the fact that the very same guy BLASTED CBS when it reported just the same issue, saying that it wasn’t true (also known as lying through his teeth). But what’s much worse is the suicide rate itself. I don’t know how much something like this can be prevented, but as far as it can be prevented, resources MUST be alloted so it is.
Jason, if you read this, didn’t you do a post, or maybe a comment, about veteran mental health issues? My feeling is that were are woefully lacking in the mental care we give our veterans, but I’ll admit it’s based more on a vague feeling of the matter than actual knowledge.
2 Tully
April 26, 2008 @ 9:54 pm CESTIt’s critical of the government, so it MUST be TRUE! Try applying some basic analysis here, folks.
Another e-mail said an average of 18 war veterans kill themselves each day
First off, one would like some actual confirmation that the emails themsevles are genuine and that the quotations are precise. Note for example the difference between "war veterans" and "veterans." Next, some serious confirmation that they are based on ACTUAL DATA and are not someone talking out of their posterior orifice. Because, you see, there’s an awful lot of bullshit being claimed in the media that is demonstrably untrue, and the corrections when actually made never seem to be noticed, while the bullshit claims live forever. Lastly, some demographic context needs to be provided in assessing suicide rates.
Last fall CBS took the preliminary breakout on this story and ran stories claiming that the suicide rates among Iraq/Afghanistan veterans were elevated. Problem was, when you broke out the data and compared the rate against those of the same age groups and demographic composition as veterans, the suicide rate for returning Iraq/Afghanistan veterans was LOWER than that for the same demographics groups who were NOT veterans.
Lesson: One cannot compare veteran’s rates against the population at large, but must compare them against the rates for their demographic groups. 23-yr-old males have higher incidence of suicide than 68-yr-old females. Why should 23-yr-old male veterans be compared to 68-yr-old women when assessing rates? THEY SHOULDN’T. That’s what technically call "bullshit analysis."
Far and away the highest suicide rates are found among white males 65 and older, who have suicide rates four times as high and higher than those of the population as a whole. Anyone want to take a wild-ass guess as to what percentage of American veterans are white males 65 and older?
37%. Over one out of three American veterans is a white male 65 or older. Gee, do you think that might skew the stats just a little bit when comparing veterans to the population as a whole?
Why, from the amount of hyperbolic ranting going on, one might almost think this is an election year! :-0