SOURCE: Washington Post, CBS12.com
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, there have been 19 suicides that have taken place on Veterans Administration (VA) properties from October 2017 to November 2018 – seven of them taking place in parking lots.
The Washington Post reported on February 7, 2019 that these suicides are complex and are related to myriad of variables, such as genetics, financial uncertainty, loss of relationships, but mental health experts are concerned that vets committing suicide on VA property is becoming a form of protest against a system they feel has let them down (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2019/02/07/feature/the-parking-lot-suicides/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d43bd950a381).
Jim Turner, 55, is the most recent. Weeks before Christmas in St. Petersburg, Florida, Turner was sitting on top of his military and VA records, wearing his uniform and medals, and shot himself with a rifle outside the Bay Pines Department of Veterans Affairs.
In a note investigators found near Turner’s body, he had written, “I bet if you look at the 22 suicides a day you will see VA screwed up in 90%.”
According to Turner’s family, he had expressed to them how angry he was that he was unable to get a mental health appointment at the VA clinic.
According to the Washington Post report, the VA declined to comment on individual cases, citing privacy concerns.
Veterans are 1.5 times as likely as civilians to die by suicide, the WP further reported, adding that in 2016, the veteran suicide rate was 26.1 per 100,000, compared with 17.4 per 100,000 for non-veteran adults, according to a recent federal report.
This new spate of VA property suicides were not tracked prior to 2017.
Sixty-two percent of veterans, or 9 million people, depend on VA’s vast hospital system, but accessing it can require navigating a frustrating bureaucracy. Veterans sometimes must prove that their injuries are connected to their service, which can require a lot of paperwork and appeals.
The WP reported that veterans who take their own lives on VA grounds often intend to send a message, according to the director of Injury Control Research Center for Suicide Prevention at the University of Rochester, Eric Caine.
The newest VA executive director for suicide prevention, Keita Franlin, said the agency has created training for parking lot attendants in suicide intervention by patrolling the areas, also launching a pilot program that expands its suicide prevention efforts, including peer mentoring, to civilian workplaces and state governments.
Another veteran who succumbed to suicide was 32-year-old John Toombs, a former Army sergeant and Afghanistan veteran. Toombs hanged himself on the grounds of the Alvin C. York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., the morning before Thanksgiving 2016.
David Toombs, John’s father, said his son had signed up for inpatient treatment program for PTSD, substance abuse, depression and anxiety. But John, though well-intentioned, was ejected from the program for a handful of infractions such as not following guidelines, including being 20 minutes late picking up his medications on time.
A few hours before he took his life, Toombs wrote in a Facebook post from the Murfreesboro VA that he was “feeling empty,” with a distressed emoji.
“I dared to dream again. Then you showed me the door faster than last night’s garbage,” he wrote. “To the streets, homeless, right before the holidays.”
From John Toombs’ Facebook Page
Toombs also filmed himself which posted to YouTube and was shared by friends, not knowing it was only moments before he took his life, saying:
“I’m John Tombs. I’m sitting here outside Alvin C. York VA where earlier today i was discharged for a trivial reason,” Toombs said in the video. “They knew the extent of my problems, PTSD, depression, all that, even more…I came for help and they just threw me out like a stray dog in the rain.”
From John Toombs’ YouTube video and CBS12.com
The Murfreesboro VA hospital, where Toombs took his life, was ranked among the worst in the nation for mental health, according to the agency’s 2016 internal ratings. It has since improved to two out of a possible five stars.
