Active-Duty Suicide Rate Hit Record High in 2020

The suicide rate for active-duty troops rose to 28.7 per 100,000 last year, up from 26.3 the previous year, according to the latest edition of an annual Defense Department report. This is the highest rate since the Pentagon began keeping detailed records in 2008.

The year-over-year change to the suicide count is not “a huge increase” but the increase to the rate over time is “cause for concern and there needs to be renewed focus to specific suicide-prevention intatives,” said Julie Cerel, who leads the Suicide Prevention and Exposure Lab at the University of Kentucky. “What they have been doing hasn’t been working and they need to do something different and more sustained."

Counting deaths by suicide is not an exact science, and official tallies can change as new information emerges. In statistical terms, the figure given as each year’s rate represents the midpoint of the 95%-confidence range. That’s why Karin Orvis, who leads DoD’s Defense Suicide Prevention Office, said the rates in 2019 and 2020 are “statistically comparable.”

But Orvis also noted that the increase over the past six years is statistically significant, from 20.3 per 100,000 active troops in 2015 to 28.7 last year.

https://www.govexec.com/defense/2021/10/active-duty-suicide-rate-hits-record-high/185920/