Expanding numbers of anti-suicide initiatives are making little difference. As Marine Corps Maj. Thomas Schueman explains, despite the huge investment of “financial and human capital in the mental health realm … by any measure of effectiveness, we are completely missing the target.”
The issue is personal for Schueman, who lost three Marines formerly under his command to suicide in 2020. When he set out to find resources to help other veterans, he discovered that most programming was focused on the Special Forces community and wounded veterans. Suicide was an issue that affected a far broader swath of the population. In fact, veterans who never deployed are 48% more likely to commit suicide than their peers who did deploy. Transition out of the military is a particular time for strain, with one study finding that suicide rates peaked for veterans