VA Tried to Hide Real Suicide Numbers — Again

By John M Grohol PsyD
April 22, 2008

Apparently some of the people running the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA), the agency charged with taking care of our military veterans’ health and mental health needs when they leave the service, think nothing of lying about some of the significant issues they’re facing. Especially with regards to veterans’ suicide rates.

According to their own internal emails (PDF), the head of Mental Health for the VA, Dr. Ira Katz, stated they were facing nearly 1,000 veterans’ suicide attempts every month. That wouldn’t have been such a problem had Dr. Katz simply stated that as a fact when CBS News originally asked him for the number. But he didn’t:

Katz’s e-mail was written shortly after the VA provided CBS News data showing there were only 790 attempted suicides in all 2007 — a fraction of Katz’s estimate.

Sadly, this is just the latest round in Katz’s cover-up attempts of the suicide epidemic amongst our vets:

Last November when CBS News exposed an epidemic of more than 6,200 suicides in 2005 among those who had served in the military, Katz attacked our report.

“Their number is not, in fact, an accurate reflection of the rate,” he said last November.

But it turns out they were, as Katz admitted in this e-mail, just three days later. He wrote: there “are about 18 suicides per day among America’s 25 million veterans.”

That works out to about 6,570 per year, which Katz admits in the same e-mail, “is supported by the CBS numbers.”

Katz should immediately resign. There’s no excuse for trying to whitewash this sort of problem. In order to help vets with suicide, the VA and government first have to acknowledge the significance and extent of the problem. Playing with the numbers isn’t a good way to start this effort.

U.S. vets deserve the best health care and mental health care we can afford.

They also deserve the truth.

Read the full article: VA Hid Suicide Risk, Internal E-Mails Show

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues, and the intersection of technology and psychology since 1992.