U.S. Army losing battle with suicide

Suicide is taking a daily toll in the U.S. Army. /Image via illumemagazine.com

The United States is fighting one hot war in Afghanistan and smaller scale war-on-terrorism police actions around the globe. But there's no draft, no war bonds, no calls on the American people to share the sacrifice of armed service members and their families.

For those Americans who have a hard time remembering the nation is at war, here's a grim reminder: the U.S. Army set a suicide record last year, with 325 soldiers taking their own lives.

Despite the Army's efforts to ramp up support services for soldiers and their families, mental health professionals and veteran advocates told CNN that the strains on the U.S. military are outstripping the Pentagon's response to its suicide epidemic. "The whole system being strained: more temper, stigma is rampant, leaders who should be getting more education for mental health issues but are not," said Dr. William Nash, who specializes in combat stress injuries.

Paul Sullivan, who serves on the board of Veterans for Common Sense, gave an equally pessimistic view of the efforts to address the problem. "The military is trying to improve, yet it's still falling short," he said. "For example, the military is now providing more psychological exams, but it's not doing it for every soldier coming back. And the military still reports that it's short-handed for mental health professionals and, because of the vacancies, that means either veterans don't see a doctor at all, there's delay seeing a doctor, the veteran is put in group therapy instead of individual, or the veteran is given prescription drugs instead of receiving one-on-one counseling, which is the best standard."

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