This report, by Brandi Powell, was posted to the Austin News 8 website, March 30, 2009
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said the number of suicides among soldiers is too high, and a task force has been set up to work on the issue.
The Army said rates from the Department of Defense for soldier suicides are now above the rates put out by the Centers for Disease Control, when comparing like-groups of young people.
Chiarelli said the CDC's latest data is from 2006.
"This is the first time in my career we have ever exceeded the CDC's rate for a demographically adjusted population," Chiarelli said.
Still, he said the up-to-143 Army suicides nationwide in 2008, isn't going unnoticed.
"Twenty per 100,000 is far too large, and we've got to try to do something about that," Chiarelli said.
Those are just numbers for what he called "active component forces." So far in 2009, Chiarelli said there have been up to 60 soldier suicides across the country.
According to Fort Hood, there has been one confirmed suicide since the beginning of 2009, but Fort Hood leadership said they made the conscious decision not to give statistics on the number of suicides on base in 2007 and 2008. They said they don't want to pit one base against another.
Looking forward, after seven-and-a-half years of war and multiple deployments, Chiarelli said they're honing in on soldiers' current needs.
"Many of our authorizations for mental health care providers were put together long before we started fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan," Chiarelli said.
He said the Army is trying to get more mental health professionals on board at bases like Fort Hood who understand the specific issues involved with soldiers who've been deployed .
Some soldiers like the idea, but they say that hasn't been the main issue on their minds.
"Most of us don't realize there's a shortage," Major Dave Olson, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, said. "We're just afraid of the stigma, at least a lot of guys like me. Now that the stigma's been reduced, we don't need to be afraid of that anymore."
Chaplains said over the past couple years they have seen the same amount of soldiers coming in for help with mental health concerns.
"I would say it's about the same because since 9/11, units are rotating in and rotating out combat operations," Lt. Col. Stephen Kelley, Garrison Family Life Chaplain, said.
The task force will continue to look at the total health of its soldiers and their families.
Fort Hood said there is no change in what dependents of soldiers get, if the death is ruled a suicide.
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