Suicidal veterans on own if they leave military
OTTAWA - In the five years Fred Doucette has worked in the military's peer support program in New Brunswick, he has known 10 soldiers who have been admitted to hospital in Fredericton or Charlottetown after becoming suicidal.
Some tried to kill themselves. Others talked about doing it. They all survived.
But only two of them would have shown up in statistics kept by the Department of National Defence.
The other eight were no longer with the Canadian Forces by the time their mental health deteriorated that badly.
Earlier this spring, DND issued a background document on suicide in the Forces.
It highlighted the fact that suicide rates among Forces personnel have been declining for the past 12 years and are lower than those among the overall Canadian population.
That's accurate, said Doucette, "but they don't track the guys once they're out.
"When I think of my guys, some were only out of the military a couple of months before they tried."
Doucette is a former infantry captain who was diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing atrocities in Bosnia in the 1990s.
He left the military on a medical release in 2002 after 32 years in uniform.
A first-time author, Doucette's book on his experiences, Empty Casing: A soldier's memoir of Sarajevo under siege, has just sold out its first hardcover print run of 4,000 copies. Publisher Douglas & McIntyre plans a second print run and a paperback edition should be out this fall.
The resident of Lincoln says the military and Veterans Affairs are doing far more than they did years ago for veterans troubled by their experiences in uniform, but said the difficulties in tracking how many former soldiers attempt or commit suicide obscures an important reality.
"It's still the (mental health) injury that was generated while they were in the service," he said. "But unless the guy leaves a raving note saying it was all due to his military service, there's no way of linking it."
He learned of the 10 suicidal soldiers or veterans because he'd dealt with them earlier in his program. When they got into difficulty later, it was usually a relative who let him know.
Only one of the 10 had served in Afghanistan. The others had been in Bosnia and often another hot spot, including Somalia or Rwanda.
"None of them re-attempted," he said. "One guy is driving a school bus, another is retired, another has retrained and has another job."
In all of the cases Doucette has seen, the suicide attempt was "the turnaround from which they got the care they needed and started to get better."
Veterans Affairs has determined it would not be possible to accurately track suicides among former members of the Canadian Forces, said spokeswoman Janice Summerby.
The department has been quite candid about the rise in the number of soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress since the Afghanistan mission began.
The numbers have tripled. Veterans Affairs is helping more than 10,000 clients with a psychiatric condition, more than 6,500 of whom have some degree of post-traumatic stress.
That challenge has prompted the department to open operational stress injury clinics across the country.
The clinics offer assessment, treatment, prevention and support services from psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers.
Doucette spoke at the ceremony in May during which Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson officially opened one of the clinics in Fredericton.
"Compared to where we were five years ago, it's phenomenal how things have turned around," said Doucette.
"The fellows who were in Afghanistan who have approached me after stress are still at work. They're not sending them home anymore - they're recognizing it, keeping them employed with their peers and being flexible about giving them time to go for counseling.
"That approach comes from knowledge.
"After all, this is an injury you can't catch."
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