The Veteran Suicide Epidemic: What Do We Know, What Has Been Done, and What More Can We Do?

The objective of this thesis is to address, study and evaluate the current Veteran suicide epidemic and discuss current initiatives and recommended reforms to decrease Veteran suicide rates across the nation. This thesis holistically demonstrates the significance of this issue with presenting and analyzing extensive recent data and information gathered from military reports. Next, this thesis assesses federal policies and programs along with statewide suicide prevention efforts created to mitigate this issue, including unique anecdotal evidence and observed data. In order to illustrate the nature and efficacy of current suicide prevention measures, this thesis carefully relies on information from diverse primary sources, examining stories, claims, and perspectives from state Veterans-affiliated leadership, some of whom are former service-members themselves. To comprehensively unite these various state profiles and perspectives, this thesis conducts careful theme-based analysis, studying and dissecting each state using a uniform set of themes. Finally, this thesis proposes thoughtful and evidence-based recommendations for future efforts to further decrease Veteran suicides, offering insights for key changes to important processes and federal reporting as well as suggestions for the implementation of specialized prevention efforts on a nationwide scale with the goal of promoting the welfare of our nation’s former service members.