2020 State Of Our Heroes Mental Health
This report is to support local communities to be able to understand and identify how our Heroes are mentally struggling throughout our country and within our communities.
Veteran, Military and First Responder Suicide Statistics
So what is the State Of Our Heroes Mental Health? As we do not have the number of suicides throughout our Nation for 2020 we are going to focus on the numbers we do have for previous years. According to the 2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report published by the VA their was an average of 19.3 Veteran suicides per day in 2017 which represents a 17% increase for the numbers that were reported in 2005! This means that we are on pace to be over 22 veteran suicides per day by 2029! Of those Heroes that lost their lives 70.7% of them were males and 43.2% were female. We know that this is an issue as veteran suicides are 1.5 times higher than non-veteran adults. To take it one step further we want to include active duty Military and First Responders. According to a report on suicide released by the DOD in 2018 there were 541 suicides committed throughout the military’s active and reserve components in 2018. According to an article written by Spectrum News 1 in 2019 there was over 200 Police Officer suicides and 133 confirmed firefighter suicides. These numbers tend to be higher than the deaths that occur during the line of duty. To create a more transparent per day number we believe that it’s conservative to say that the projected number of HEROES that commit suicide is at least 22 per day. It’s our mission as a small and Veteran owned business to do what we can to ensure all of our Nations Heroes and there families have the support and resources they need to address their mental health needs. SUPVETS wants you to know that we are thankful for your unwavering dedication and service to our Country and we truly believe that the United States of America would not be the great Nation that it is today without the service and sacrifice of our Veterans, Military, First Responders and their families. Please know that there are resources and that we are forever grateful, thank you!
At SUPVETS we aim to spread awareness towards the need to create more support within our local communities and build a trusted database of discounts offered by Local Business. Another way we work to support our Heroes is through mental health resiliency. We do this by aligning with the SUPHEROES Foundation and their cause. It’s important for us to work hard supporting local businesses to understand why it’s important to be vocal and visual about the discounts they offer. Too often a local Hero asks for support from local businesses and they are told, “no I am sorry, but I wish we did”. To ask for support is tough enough, and the continued rejection can be mentally fatiguing. It can leave one to feel unsupported, unloved and unvalued. SUPVETS aims to create a more transparent and efficient system to support small businesses in making the choice to offer discounts for our Heroes while also creating a sustainable support system for the mental health of our Heroes and their families. The status of our Heroes mental health is a direct reflection on how we as a Nation are doing to support our Heroes and there families. The SUPHEROES foundation aims to support the mental health of our Heroes by breaking down the barriers that prevent our heroes and their families from getting the mental health treatments they need and deserve. It’s time for our Heroes to put themselves FIRST.
Mental Health Resources for Veterans, Military, and First Responders
Article Sources:
SUPVETS.com
https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/suicide_prevention/data.asp
https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/1972793/dod-releases-report-on-suicide-among-troops-military-family-members/
https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/madison/news/2020/03/02/more-first-responders-dying-by-suicide-than-in-line-of-duty-#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20national%20non,firefighter%20deaths%20across%20the%20nation.
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