Bill would set Veterans Suicide Awareness Week

Image
  • Bill would set a Veterans Suicide Awareness Week
Body

OKLAHOMA CITY – One week each fall in Oklahoma, public attention would be focused on military veterans’ suicide if House Bill 2891 becomes law.

The bill, authored by state Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, would designate the second week of October each year as Veterans Suicide Awareness Week. “All citizens of this state are requested to devote some portion of Veterans Suicide Awareness Week to commemorate those veterans lost to suicide and bring awareness to veteran suicides,” the bill states. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 6,139 American military veterans committed suicide in 2017. They included 85 Oklahoma veterans, Rosecrants reported. The Norman Democrat said his legislation stemmed from the 2013 suicide of the son of a constituent; the young man was a U.S. Army veteran of the Iraq War. “These men and women were willing to go to some pretty dark places in the world in service to this country,” the legislator said. “Now, when they are home, they need our help.”

SUICIDE EXACTS A HEAVY TOLL

Veterans’ suicide exacts a heavy toll financially and socially. “We pay $100,000 to train a warrior, and then lose him or her to suicide,” said Brenda Spencer-Ragland. “We have to reach out to these people,” she said. Ms. Spencer-Ragland is the immediate past president/ CEO of the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce. Previously she was a civilian employee with the U.S. Army for nearly 33 years, working as director of Morale, Welfare and Recreation and Family at Fort Sill Army post. “I have friends who have had to cope with suicide,” Ms. Spencer-Ragland said.

One of those friends is Ashlynne Haycock from Lawton, deputy director of policy and legislation for the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), an organization based in Arlington, Va. Her father, Army Sgt.1st Class Jeffrey Haycock, died from a heart attack while training to deploy in 2002 when Ashlynne was 10 years old, and her mother, Senior Airman Nichole Haycock, killed herself nine years later. “She had undocumented PTSD and depression,” Ashlynne Haycock told The Washington Post in 2018. “I never imagined I would become a Gold Star child for the second time ... in 2011.”

INJURY OR ILLNESS CAN LEAD TO DEPRESSION

“Sometimes a veteran sustains an injury or contracts an illness that can result in depression,” Ms. Spencer-Ragland said. “And as veterans transition out of a career and a community with which they feel comfortable, that can be a vulnerable time for them. The military is a family.” One of the goals of the U.S. military is to “build leadership skills – and that’s taking care of others,” Ms. Spencer-Ragland said. “We forget about taking care of self. Leaders need to take care of themselves: physically, mentally and spiritually.”

MENTAL HEALTH CLINIC FOR MILITARY VETERANS PLANNED IN LAWTON

Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) in 2016 launched a network of mental health clinics to serve veterans and their families, particularly post- 9/11 veterans.  CVN has “committed to Lawton as an expansion location for 2020,” said Anthony Guido, vice president of communications and public relations for the organization. “We believe this is an area of great need and we can make a big impact in the community with our proven, clinical model.”

The CVN timeline “calls for the clinic to open in the second half of the year,” Guido said. “Our Network Growth and Operations teams are actively looking for locations at this time. We hope to make an announcement about our local operating partner and the exact clinic location in the coming months.” The CVN website indicates its clinics are open to anyone who has served in the U.S. armed forces, “regardless of role while in uniform, discharge status, or combat experience. This includes the National Guard and Reserves.” Cohen Veterans Network was founded in Stamford, Conn., by philanthropist Steven A. Cohen with a $275 million donation.