FERNLEY, NEVADA, UNITED STATES - 2022/05/30: American flags seen at a veterans cemetery. People attended a Memorial day event at a veterans cemetery. (Photo by Ty O'Neil/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) The rate of suicides among America's veterans could be more than double the figure reported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a recently released study.In a joint study between America's Warrior Partnership, a nonprofit organization that works to end veteran suicide., the University of Alabama and Duke University, researchers reviewed death figures from 2014 to 2018 for eight s states – Alabama, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, and Oregon – and determined that states had undercounted veteran suicides that were not included in figures released by federal officials.
The states were the only ones that provide reliable data, the AWP report said. "If we are going to make progress toward preventing former service member suicide, we need better data," said Jim Lorraine, President and CEO of AWP. "Inaccurate data leads to a misallocation of very valuable resources."MASSACHUSETTS SAILOR WHO DIED IN PEARL HARBOR ATTACKS BURIED AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERYAccording to the report, if the eight states represented the national suicide rate, it would account for 44 veteran suicides a day in that four-year period instead of 17.7, a figure released by the VA.
The findings came despite a VA report released Monday that concluded that fewer veterans died from suicide in 2020 than in any year since 2006.