Suicides among military personnel increased in 2023, continuing a gradual increase in suicides among active duty forces, persisting despite prevention efforts.
The Department of Defense’s annual report on military suicides, released Thursday, said suicides among active-duty military personnel increased from 331 in 2022 to 363 in 2023.
“Certainly, yes, this long-term trend is gradually increasing,” Dr. Timothy Hoyt, deputy director of the Office of Force Resilience at the Department of Defense, said in a phone call.
The suicide rate increased from 17 per 100,000 active-duty military personnel in 2011 to 26 in 2023, according to data released in the 2023 annual report, although the rate decreased for a year from 2020-2021.
Active-duty military personnel who died by suicide in 2023 were largely enlisted men under the age of 30, accounting for 61% of suicides. The most common method of suicide was firearm, at 65%, followed by hanging or asphyxiation, at 28%.
Defense officials said suicide rates were similar to those of the U.S. population between 2011 and 2022.
“We are not immune to the factors that drive suicide across the United States, and our service members face, in addition to these, a number of unique military challenges,” Hoyt said.
He added that the Suicide Prevention Response and Independent Review Committee’s recommendations provided a “mechanism by which we can address as many of these potential risks as possible and invest in these spaces.”
The Pentagon has established a review board for make recommendations to reduce deaths by suicide in the army. Last year, the committee made a series of recommendations, including generally improving mental health care delivery, addressing stigma and other barriers to care, and reviewing prevention training of suicide.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who created the congressionally mandated review panel in 2022, said in a statement that the annual report’s findings “urgently demonstrate the need for the Department to redouble its efforts in the complex areas of suicide prevention and postvention”. Austin said the Defense Department has implemented 20 of the committee’s 83 recommendations.
The Pentagon plans to spend about $250 million on suicide prevention in fiscal 2025, the largest amount the Defense Department has ever invested, Hoyt told reporters.
“Most of the time when we’ve launched initiatives over the last couple of decades, there has been insufficient investment to ensure that those are sustained and that we have long-term implementation of those programs,” Hoyt said .
The total number of suicides across the forces, including active duty and reserve, was 523 in 2023, up from 493 in 2022.
Suicide is one of the main causes of death for veterans Also. According to the latest report from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the suicide rate for 2021 was 33.9 per 100,000, compared to 32.6 per 100,000 in 2020.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or in a suicidal crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
For more information about mental health care resources and support, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Helpline can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or by email. info@nami.org.
