Regional
(2010-10-27)
DENVER, CO
(KUNC) -
The U.S. Army will spend $17 million dollars over the next three years to study why soldiers and veterans take their own lives. Officials hope the new effort, called the Military Suicide Research Consortium, will address rising suicide rates. The MSRC seeks to fill in knowledge gaps that exist right now in identifying risk among active military and veterans.
"In the civilian world, we know a bit about what measures do a good job of identifying at-risk individuals. We don't know that for active duty military," said VA Researcher Peter Gutierrez at the Denver VA Medical Center. Gutierrez will be co-director of the project.
One MSRC goal will be to develop a global network of researchers to study military suicide. These researchers will compile a broad database so the people running prevention programs can see what works.
More than 1,100 servicemen and women killed themselves between 2005 and 2009. © Copyright 2012, KUNC
