Is the VA Data Accurate on Veteran Suicides?

This week the VA published its National Veterans Suicide Prevention Annual Report, highlighting a 10%  decrease in Veteran suicides from 2018 to 2020. Meanwhile, the DoD's most recent report states that its suicide rate increased by 15% during this same period. Any reduction in Veteran suicides should be welcome news, but the sharp contrast in change between the rates of Veteran and Military suicides raises credibility questions. Immediately following its release, the VA report was challenged in several national news stories by America’s Warrior Partnership (AWP), a national suicide prevention non-profit.  In a stunning revelation, the AWP Operation Deep Dive summary report states that our “former service members take their own lives each year at a rate approximately 2.4 times greater than previously reported by the VA.

“By merging identified state death records with military service data and incorporating other individualized sources such as VA health care and benefits numbers, we can develop better tools and methods to prevent these heartbreaking incidents that shatter lives and communities,” said Cheree Tham, AWP’s Chief of Programs and Initiatives.

The VA’s budget has increased by 500% since 2001 to $300B, while at the same time, our Veterans population in America has shrunk by 24.6%. With only 5.9 million of America’s 18 million Veterans receiving care at the VA today and a massive $260B increase in its annual budget, the VA faces considerable pressure to stop this epidemic of suicide. An ABC News story on the VA Report highlights the concerns raised by AWP regarding an undercount in the VA report and identified a significant contrast with the DoD report for the same period.

Many excellent and committed staff members work tirelessly at the VA to care for our wounded and injured warriors. But there is a history of obfuscation from within the VA leadership regarding data reporting and critical veteran care issues going back to agent orange and burn pit-related illnesses. Most recently, these discrepancies were recognized by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, related to the multi-billion dollar failure by the VA to transition to an Electronic Health Record - where Senior VA Staffers “Failed to Provide Accurate Data on training. Sen. Moran chided the VA, stating, “Patient safety and honesty within the VA should be the top priorities,” and citing “failures at the highest levels at the VA, including the department’s failure to ensure that personnel are candid and open with OIG investigators working to uncover problems in the system.” These concerns add credence to the allegations in the AWP Report published by the Military Times.

Veteran suicide is now the second leading cause of death for Veterans aged 18-44, but rigorous academic and accurate data is crucial to developing a solution. In response to the AWP Report, VA Press Secretary Terence Hayes stated, “One Veteran suicide is one too many, and the VA will continue to accurately measure Veteran suicide so we can end Veteran suicide." It is deeply troubling that there was no mention of an inquiry on the potential for undercounting. The lack of attention to this allegation leaves us with a terrible question: Are we losing 16 Veterans each day to suicide, 44 Veterans, or another unknown number of Veteran lives? If the discrepancies identified by AWP are accurate, this could raise the total number of Veterans lost to suicide since 2001 from 100,000 to 200,000, turning this national tragedy into a nightmare. 

Brigadier General  Jack Hammond (U.S. Army, Ret.) serves as Executive Director of Home Base and its National Center of Excellence for Veteran Mental Health and Brain Injury. Home Base is dedicated to healing the invisible wounds of war for Veterans of all eras, Service Members, Military Families, and Families of the Fallen.  Home Base is a Massachusetts General Hospital and Red Sox Foundation Program.