Veterans at greater risk of suicide: study
OTTAWA — A landmark study from Veterans Affairs Canada appears to confirm what many have long feared: Canadians who have served in uniform are at greater risk of taking their own lives than members of the general public.
The results showed that the risk of suicide among male veterans of all ages was 36 per cent higher than among men who had never served in the Canadian military.
The risk was significantly higher among younger male veterans, with those younger than 25 being 242 per cent more likely to kill themselves than nonveterans of the same age.
The risk among female veterans was found to be 81 per cent greater than for women who hadn’t served. Age was not considered as great a factor among women.
The statistical study did not delve into the reasons for the results, though it did say that the trend has been largely consistent for decades.
Researchers used 37 years of data from Veterans Affairs, the Department of National Defence and Statistics Canada to review the records of more than 200,000 former service members between 1976 and 2012.
Statistics Canada was unable to provide more recent data, which is why the study did not go past 2012. Officials said they intend to continue adding to the information as more numbers become available.
The study is the first of its kind and appears to confirm what until now has been only anecdotal evidence suggesting that those who have served in the military are more likely to kill themselves.
The federal government has promised to roll out more services and support to serving and retired military personnel through a new suicide-prevention strategy, which was released last month.
Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan said officials will study the results and try to find ways to improve that strategy — and ultimately cut down on the number of military and veteran suicides.
“Every one of those numbers is a life,” O’Regan said outside the House of Commons on Thursday.
“You can’t stop repeating that because you’re talking about friends, you’re talking about family, you’re talking about people within the military community, where these things really resonate.”
While there have long been suspicions that the suicide rate among veterans was higher than the general population, Queen’s University psychiatry professor Diane Groll said the results were nonetheless surprising.
She said that despite concerns about the number of suicides among some segments of the military, especially the army, the overall rate among all active service members has been statistically similar to the general public.
“So I guess I would have assumed that given there is no difference in the active military, there probably wasn’t this big of a difference in the veterans,” Groll said.