Whether it is military culture, the atrocities of war, or multiple deployments, the simple fact is the rate of suicide among the nation’s veterans has been on the rise since 9/11.
The increase is hitting those in the 18-to-34 age range the hardest, said Brent Khan, Ed.D., principal investigator of a three-year, $375,000 Mental Health Awareness Training Grant aimed at suicide prevention among veterans in Nebraska.
“It’s pretty bad right now,” said Dr. Khan, who also is co-director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) at UNMC.
“The combination of the stress involved in military service, traumatic events experienced and a lack of support and stigma has led to the rates of trauma and mental illness being excessively high,” he said.
The goals of the grant are to:
- Foster alliances with veterans, families of veterans and local and state agencies to create effective recruitment methods and provide veterans culturally specific mental health training and referral pathways for services;
- Train families, caregivers and service providers to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental illness; and
- Give trainees and other non-behavioral health professionals the ability to have a heightened sense of mental health awareness and knowledge to respond safely.
The grant allows BHECN to partner with public health agencies, veteran groups and mental health agencies across the state to provide training.
There are 130,000 veterans living in Nebraska.
Some live in poverty, some suffer with alcohol and substance use abuse and others live in rural
areas with little access to primary health care, let alone behavioral health services, Dr. Khan said.
“A lot of vets don’t access their VA benefits, so they are just out there,” he said, noting that more needs to be done to help them transition back into civilian life once their tour and, more likely than not, multiple tours of duty are done.
Thank you, Brent. This is so important.
Thank you so much, Dr. Khan. This grant will absolutely save lives. What a blessing as a veteran to see the amazing work you will be doing in this area!
As the Daughter, Wife, Sister, and Aunt of vets, Thank you. One only guesses as to what these fine people have endured. The United States as a whole has too many of our warriors on the streets living, dealing with addiction and depression. Again, Thank you for kind work to help Veterans.
As the sister of a Veteran who died by suicide, I can't say enough how important this is. I sincerely hope that this grant is able to spare Veterans and their families the emotional trauma that we have endured. Thank you for your work in this area.