September 16, 2023 • 29 mins
Ryan Gorman hosts an iHeartRadio nationwide special for National Suicide Prevention Month featuring Dr. Matthew Miller, Department of Veterans Affairs Executive Director for VA Suicide Prevention. Dr. Miller joins the show to discuss the VA's partnership with the Ad Council on their "Don't Wait. Reach Out." campaign and resources available for veterans. Jim Lorraine, President of America's Warrior Partnership, also checks in. Jim Lorraine breaks down AWP's work combating veteran suicide and their Operation Deep Dive initiative designed to find answers to the issues driving veteran suicide and help save lives. Finally, Phil Krabbe, Marine Veteran & Dr. Erin Fletcher, Clinical Psychologist and Wounded Warrior Project Warrior Care Network Director, join the show. Phil Krabbe shares his personal experience with PTSD and suicidal thoughts, while Dr. Fletcher explains the Wounded Warrior Project's work tied to suicide prevention.
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(00:00):
Welcome to iHeart Radio Communities, apublic affairs special focusing on the biggest issues
impacting you this week. Here's RyanGorman. Thanks for joining us here on
iHeart Radio Communities. I'm Ryan Gorman, and we have an important conversation lined
up for you for this show.September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and
the focus of this show will beon preventing veterans suicigned, as they have
(00:22):
a fifty seven percent higher suicide ratethan non veteran adults. In a bit,
we'll check in with two organizations doingtremendous work on this issue, America's
Warrior Partnership and the Wounded Warrior Project. But right now, to get things
started, I'm joined by doctor MatthewMiller, a veteran and the executive director
for Suicide Prevention in the Department ofVeterans Affairs. Doctor Miller, thanks for
(00:44):
coming on the show, and let'sstart with the work the VA is doing
on the issue of suicide prevention.Yeah, Suicide Prevention Month, as you
mentioned, Ryan, is a greatopportunity to talk about some things that we
know about suicide prevention. For example, we know that suicide is preventable.
It's not inevitable. We know thatthere is hope. We see signs and
(01:10):
anchors of hope within data available tous on suicide prevention efforts. Third,
everyone has a role to play,and talking about ways that that can be
actioned, I think is really importantduring this month. So thanks for the
(01:32):
opportunity to do so. And I'mreally excited about our campaign Don't Wait reach
Out and the new PSAs that we'rereleasing as part of Suicide Prevention Months.
So with these new PSAs, youused research to help inspire and create them
along with veterans. Tell us aboutthe process that went into these public service
(01:56):
advertisements. Yeah, a lot oftalking and listening with veterans, I think
is the central component and the heartof the matter. It's sitting down with
veterans and asking what matters in termsof communicating reaching out for help? What
(02:20):
are the blocks, what are thecommon barriers? What would be a message
that would resonate with you to helpyou work through the barriers that we've heard
about and we've talked about. Youtake all that feedback to those questions from
veterans around the nation, and yousee its packaged together in Don't Wait reach
(02:44):
Out campaign. I'm immensely grateful tothe AD Council for the work that they've
done in partnering with us to createthis campaign. What are some of the
different resources that you have available tohelp veterans who are struggling. I would
say a great starting point is VAdot com slash Reach, and then veterans
(03:07):
or anyone to visit that site candrive what resources they receive. You kind
of drive it on the website bywhat's your click. What's your click is
guided by what you're feeling or thesituation that you're experiencing. So if you
resonate to money problems, you clickon an affiliated area and it'll curate and
(03:37):
give you resources services that can assistyou with that specific area. Executive Director
for Suicide Prevention in the Department ofVeterans Affairs, doctor Matthew Miller, And
again that website is VA dot govslash Reach. Doctor Miller. Thank you
so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Thanks for
your help, Brian, appreciate itall right. I'm Ryan Gorman here on
(04:00):
iHeartRadio Communities, and now let mebring in our next guest. I'm joined
by Jim Lorraine, a military veteranand president of America's Warrior Partnership. You
can learn more about this fantastic organizationwhich is partnering with communities to prevent veteran
suicide at America's Warrior Partnership dot org. September is National Suicide Prevention Month.
(04:21):
Jim, thanks so much for takinga few minutes to come on the show.
This is a topic that we havetalked a lot about in the past,
but for a refresher, can yougive us an overview as to how
your organization works to do what yourmission states prevent veteran suicide. Yeah,
Ryan, thanks for having us on. At the local level, what America's
(04:43):
Warrior Partnership does is that we havenine communities throughout the United States, still
the smallest seeing the Nama Nation ofArizona, and what we do there is
our focus is on connecting to theveterans in their family, understanding where they
want to go, advocating on theirbehalf, and basically improving their quality of
life. We believe that at thelocal level and at the national level that
(05:08):
if you can, if you canimprove a veteran's quality of life through existing
services and access to benefits that theirquality of life goes up, their suicide
rate goes down. On informing ourpractice, we have a suicide study called
Operation Deep Dive, and it's thefirst of its kind to merge to correlate
(05:29):
military service two causes of death.We have a great partnership with the Department
of Defense, and what that partnershipallows us to do is to paint a
picture of down to the zip codelevel, the veteran who is the greatest
risk for taking their life, sothe communities can focus on finding them,
building a relationship, and keeping themgetting upstream. We call it from the
(05:55):
death and preventing their death. Arethere's certain type of veterans, whether it's
because of geographic location, or gender, race, past experiences, home situations,
who are more at risk of potentiallycommitting suicide than others. Yeah,
(06:17):
they're sure are. So what wesee is it depends on the community where
they live. So I'll give youan example, Massachusetts, the veteran who's
the greatest risk looks very different thanFlorida, looks very different than Montana.
All part of our suicide study communities, We've found that geography and community may
(06:41):
have an enormous impact on the suiciderate. Additionally, military service, the
veteran who's the greatest risk. Asan example, if a service member or
of a veteran had a demotion anytimeduring their career, it increased their likelihood
the percentage of likelihood of taking theirown mic by fifty eight percent. Demotion,
(07:04):
you're at high risk. We foundthat the service components that the service
that was at greatest risk was theCoastguard served with surprises when we saw interesting
but when you look, yeah,when you look at the population and then
you look at the number of coastguardsmanwdie by suicide, and then you look
at how many of them are,they're they're they're very they're per capita,
(07:29):
they're overrepresented. And I also sawin the highlights of this study that you
did. And again we're joined bythe President of America's Warrior Partnership Jim Lorraine
for National Suicide Prevention Month, thosewho didn't serve for a long period of
time, we're actually at greatest riskfor suicide or overdose. Yeah, exactly.
(07:57):
So what we found was every yearyou served in the military decreased your
likelihood by two percent. So ifhe has somebody who did twenty years in
the military think got that they've reducedtheir likelihood by about forty percent. But
those who had two or three yearsof service, which right now the contracts
are around for four years of service, which indicated that they had they didn't
(08:20):
complete a term, a contractual term, but they may have been discharged for
honorable or general discharge. They werethey were at high risk. So when
you're looking at so for us,we know that there's finite resources, and
our focus is how do I usemy finite resources to find the population at
(08:43):
greatest risk, engage them early,connect them to services that improve their quality
of life, and in the endthe outcome is a lower suicidegree. Were
you able to get an idea asto why, say members of the coast
Guard or members of the military whodidn't serve that long, why there was
(09:05):
such an increased risk for suicide amongthat population, you know, That's that's
the phase we're in right now.You know, in the national narrative,
when you talk about suicide, everyonetalks about how someone took their life.
What we're focused on is who tooktheir life and the why we're in the
y phase right now. Why whydoes this population overrepresent themselves? Why is
(09:30):
it that in like in the stateof Massachusetts. Why our firearms? The
third in line method, why isoverdose so overrepresented across the board? Why
you know? And and then whatare the other factors? One of the
(09:50):
we have a we have a greatpartnership that we're going into right now with
TransUnion to incorporate their data around toSEDENS so that we can look at financial
status, justice involvement and to getto that, to get to that why,
not only the who, but thewhy, and then we'll get to
(10:11):
the house. Now. I dowant to talk about the how for a
moment, because in your numbers youdo something different. I think this is
really important. You do something different, correct me if I'm wrong, than
the VA you do include overdose statisticsin there, right, Well, we
kept them separate, so we reportedpurely on suicide and then we also reported
(10:37):
on self injury mortality, which iswhich is predominantly overdose. And the reason
we did that was we were astonishedat how great the number of guests from
overdose were that no one was payingattention to, almost equal or greater to
the level of those that were categorizeda suicide. And when I say overdose,
(11:01):
those are the overdose that we lookedat, where those that were categorized
as accidents or undetermined, and inour mind was whether it's a suicide,
an accident, undetermined, if it'spreventable, let's engage with it. Let's
figure this out, so if wecan stop these deaths. And can you
give us a sense because we hearabout this number and sometimes it varies,
(11:24):
seventeen eighteen twenty veterans per day takingtheir own lives. But when you add
in that component you were just talkingabout whether it's accidental or an overdose that
perhaps was on purpose, that numberbecomes even more alarming than the number that
I just mentioned, which I think, in and of itself shocks people,
(11:46):
it does, you know, Ithink you know when we look at it,
it's not about the numbers. Youknow, the numbers are a way
to measure success or failure or successor how you're progressing. But really the
point is that veterans die at almosttwice the rate of non veterans, and
(12:07):
you gotta wonder why, And that'swhere I we are. It's like,
why is this happening? Why?Why with all the services and all the
benefits and all the opportunities that veteranshave that non veterans don't. Why are
they taking their lives at such ahigh rate, Why what's pushing them into
that? And and that's that's wherewe're headed with Operation Deep Dives. To
(12:31):
get to the why is to reallyto figure this out for once and for
all, and to use empirical data, not not innuendo, not stories,
but data. You know, yearsago, if you had said, Hey,
the Coast Guard is the large isthe most at risk service, I
sort of probably would have laughed andsaid, I don't know about that.
(12:52):
We proved it by numbers, andI and I feel the states that participate
with US are confident in their numbersthat they give us because they give they
provide us with everybody everyone who diedDUD is confident with the numbers that with
the data that they provide us.I'm very confident in it. But but
(13:15):
Ryan, I gotta tell you,it's not about numbers. It's about people,
and that's what matters. That's whatmatters. Talk about how you work
to help veterans become empowered, andyou have a four step plan to do
just that. Yeah, So ourour approach and the fourth step plan is
connect, educate, advocate, andcollaborate. And connect means really building a
(13:41):
relationship with the veterans, understanding whothey are, where they are, and
where they want to go in theirlife. And let me stop you there
on connect because how important is itthat you know the people you're connecting with
their veterans and you're able to sharethat experience Because I've always found with different
veterans organizations that I talked to,there is a real benefit in having veterans
(14:05):
connect with other veterans. Oh,without a doubt. Peer to peer groups
are great. Yeah, but Ihave to tell you it's about relationship.
You can have a transactional program oryou can have a relational program. We're
a relational program. We want tobuild a relationship with a veteran where they
trust us and then we stick withthem through their journey and and so that's
(14:28):
the connect piece. It can't beit can't be transactional where you just say,
hey, I'm gonna call in,I'm going to talk to somebody and
I'm probably never going to talk tothem again. It's you know, we
want veterans to know somebody's got yourback and it's us again. That but
that goes to the educate piece,educating veterans about opportunities to move forward.
(14:50):
We also educate the communities about thecommunity that serves them. And then advocacy,
it's not to enable them, it'sto empower them. It's like you
agitate a roadblock, I can't getpast this, this bureaucracy, and then
we step in to help out.And we've got our program that's called the
Network. You know right now we'reon track to serve six thousand vets just
(15:13):
this year. We've got an eightynine percent success enclosure rate. It's the
resources are out there. What wefocus on building in the relationship with a
veteran and connecting them to the servicesthat improve their quality of life. And
finally, for those listening for SuicidePrevention Month, they're hearing the problem and
(15:37):
they want to help and support thework that you're doing in America's Warrior Partnership.
What are some of the ways theycan do that televised that might need
help or their family that they cancontact us at America's Warrior Partnership dot org.
Go to the network and you canmake a request online and we'll work
(15:58):
with it. The pieces on ona suicide study, if there's a if
there's loved ones who've lost someone toa premature death within the last two years,
we have a program where we talkto him and we talk to the
friends, families, and co workersof the deceit to understand the last year
of their life. This is partof Operation Deep Dive and it gets us
(16:22):
to what did the last year oftheir life look like so that we can
see where the touch points are toprevent. And then lastly, any financial
support as we go through Operation Deepsiveis welcome, but most most importantly,
we're about serving eves. And againthe website is America's Warrior Partnership dot org.
(16:45):
That's America's Warrior Partnership dot org.Jim Lorraine, military veteran and president
of America's Warrior Partnership with US forNational Suicide Prevention Month. Jim, I
want to thank you so much,obviously for your service to this country and
your continued service and fighting this reallyimportant fight. We appreciate you doing that
and coming on the show. Thankyou. Ryan, I appreciate you having
(17:07):
us all right, and once againI'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities and
now let me bring in our finalguests for this special Suicide Prevention Month edition
of the show. I'm joined bymarine veteran Phil Crabby and doctor Aaron Fletcher,
clinical psychologist and Wounded Warrior Project WarriorCare Network Director. You can learn
(17:30):
more about the work the Wounded WarriorProject does at Wounded Warrior Project dot org.
I want to thank both of youso much for taking a few minutes
to come on the show. AndPhil, let me start with you,
if you don't mind, tell usabout your personal experience, your battle with
PTSD and suicidal thoughts. My issue, it's very intimate. It started.
(17:56):
My journey to suicide started in twothousand and six and I was on deployment
in Iraq. I lost two ofmy guys to do a roadside bomb,
and my interpreter and three others thatwere severely injured. That really that was
very traumatic, but I didn't dealwith it. Then. I compartment alized
(18:21):
it, I shut it off,and I just didn't deal with it.
And that led to heavy drinking anddrug abuse. And I did that for
fifteen years. And your body canonly take that for so long before it
(18:41):
says, okay, enough is enough. November thirtieth, two twenty, I
was standing in my kitchen at threeo'clock in the morning. I had been
awake for three days straight. Ihad been drinking for just as long,
and I just took another hit ofamphetamines and my depression kept telling me,
(19:02):
you know you can end this,and that particular day, I agreed with
it. So I loaded my thirtyeight revolver, I stuffed the barrel in
my mouth, I put some pressureon the trigger, and just before I
pulled the trigger, two thoughts poppedinto my mind. Number One, well,
as I had made a promise toa good friend of mine that I
would have the courage to survive,and that is very powerful. I would
(19:26):
have the courage to forgive myself orthe things I've done in the past,
and I would remember the painted sacrificethat I had been through up to that
point. That was the first thoughtin my mind. The second thing is
I didn't want my seven year oldson to find me dead in my kitchen.
That there was my my journey torecovery. It was very hard,
(19:52):
it was very long, but I'vebeen sober for three years now and the
Who Need Warrior Project has been herethe whole time. One thing that we've
learned through the Wounded Warrior Projects AnnualWarrior Survey is that financial wellness can have
a big impact on veterans, includingthose who end up having suicidal thoughts.
(20:18):
Was that the case for you,absolutely not being able to put food on
my table, consistently not knowing wheremy next meal was going to come from?
That those are things that I constantlythought about, and I was very
ashamed of that, and I feltinadequate. I felt as if I couldn't
(20:45):
provide for my family, and thosesuicidal thoughts were there, and it took
a lot of retraining my brain toovercome that. I just want to follow
up on that point real quick,because I think this is important. You're
doing these dangerous life or death missionsin places like a rock. I've heard
(21:10):
veterans described this before the mission orientedwork handling expensive equipment, working with top
notch technology, and then once theyreturn home, sometimes working in more ordinary
jobs that has an impact on theirmental health too. Yes, I had
a huge impact. And when Igot out of the military, like doctor
(21:33):
Fletcher says, you know, Ilost my purpose. I didn't have right,
Yeah, Yeah, I lost mypurpose and that's not a good place
to be in Doctor Fletcher, letme bring you into the conversation and again
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by PhilKrabby, a marine veteran, and doctor
Aaron Fletcher, clinical psychologist and WoundedWarrior Project Warrior Care Network Director. You
(21:56):
can learn more about the tremendous workthis organization does it Wounded Warrior Project dot
org. So, doctor Fletcher,all the data shows that the suicide rates
among veterans much much higher than nonveteran adults. During your work with veterans
as part of the Wounded Warrior Project, what have you learned about all of
this? Absolutely so, we knowat Wounded Warrior Projects, for the veterans
(22:22):
that we serve, more than onein four have had suicidal thoughts in the
past year, and one in fivehave attempted suicide. And it still was
just describing rates are higher for warriorsthat are struggling financially. So we know
that one in three of those individualsyou know who are struggling financially have thought
(22:44):
of suicide in the last year,which is really concerning given that sixty four
percent of the warriors that we've surveyedhave struggled to make ends meet at some
point in this past year. Andso where that gets to be concerning is
that when you become when your basicneeds aren't being met, when you're worried
(23:06):
about, as still said, whereyour next meal is going to come from?
Are you going to be evicted?Are you going to be able to
put a roof over your family's head? You know, how are we going
to pay the bills? It becomesreally hard to make addressing some of the
underlying mental health challenges that are thatare veterans often experienced that much harder to
deal with. It's hard to thinkfor yourself that I'm struggling with these financial
(23:29):
stresses, that I should make timeto prioritize my mental health and go seek
counseling. And so in the WarriorProjects, we really want to provide programs
and services that really treat the wholeperson, that address their mental health and
wellness needs, their financial needs,their physical health and wellness, because we
(23:49):
know that all of these are intertwinedand if they and they all need to
be addressed in order to make surethat it is still said, there's a
sense of purpose, that there's asense of hope, and that they're you
know, tuned into a community wherethey feel supportive. Phil shared with us
(24:10):
what brought him out of those suicidalthoughts. Is there something during the course
of your work, doctor Fletcher atthe Wounded Warrior Project that you've seen something
that perhaps is consistent among the veteransyou've talked to, or maybe there are
different reasons, But what have youheard in terms of veterans when they reach
that breaking point where they're potentially goingto commit suicide? What is it that
(24:36):
typically pulls them out of that?You know, again, I think that
could be again different for different individuals, but I think what will pull them
back from that is the resilience thatthey have within themselves. That still talks
about he was able to you know, pause in that incredibly overwhelming and fear
(25:00):
every moment to think about a promisehe made to a good friend, to
his family, and so being ableto tune into that internal fortitude and that
resilience that we know our veterans have. I mean, you just described how
they're you know, engaging in thesemissions that most of the you know,
(25:22):
populations wouldn't have the courage to do. And so I think tapping into that
knowing that there is a piece ofthat strong service oriented, committed individual that
is still there even in those reallyoverwhelming moments that they can they can take
(25:45):
that time and reach out and thenknowing there's there's support out there, which
is why having these conversations and sharingthe resources to know that if in those
moments they stop and they say Iwant help, that there's going to be
people there to help them. Andthat's you know, again, when the
(26:07):
Warrior Projects mission is, We're goingto be there on the other side of
the phone when you say I wanthelp. What are some of the resources
if you can give us an overviewthat the Wounded Warrior Project provides for suicide
prevention, because I'm sure when alot of people here Wounded Warrior Project,
they've seen the TV commercials and they'veseen the stories from those who have been
(26:30):
helped by the Wounded Warrior Project,but maybe the mental health aspect, the
suicide prevention aspect, doesn't come tomind for them. Yeah, that's such
a great question. And so wedo this through education awareness in programs that
address the underlying risk factors for suicide. And so those risk factors are feeling
(26:53):
isolated, feeling is though you don'thave a sense of purpose, financially,
and so One Warrior Project has programsand services that helps with each of those
kind of pillars of risk factors.So, if you're feeling like you don't
have a sense of purpose or youfeel so incredibly isolated, we have our
(27:18):
Connection program that is designed to hostevents in the community where veterans and their
families can come and engage with eachother, engage in really fun activities and
build that sense of community to reducethat isolation. And so if you're stuggling
financially, we have programs to helpyou obtain employment. We have programs to
(27:41):
help you seek the compensation that you'veearned through the VA if you've experienced any
visible or invisible injuries during your militaryservice. So again, really looking to
provide services to increase the protective factorsagainst suicide. And finally, Phil,
let me turn back to you fora moment. If there are veterans listening
(28:03):
or friends family of veterans listening whohave been struggling, what would your message
be to them. My message isclear and it's concise. Asked for help.
Nobody can help you, and youcan't get better if you don't ask
(28:25):
for help. You've got to recout, recout, ask for help, Call
the Wounded Warrior Project Resource Center andjust tell them exactly what's going on.
If the Wounded Warrior Project isn't foryou, go to the VA tell them
exactly what's going on so that theycan help you again. The website is
Wounded Warrior Project dot org. That'sWounded Warrior Project dot org. There is
(28:51):
a lot of great information out thereon the website for warriors, for families
and different ways for you to getinvolved volved, including donating to help make
sure that this again tremendous and crucialorganization can continue to do the important work
that it does day in and dayout. Marine veteran Phil Crabbie and doctor
(29:12):
Aaron Fletcher, clinical psychologist and WoundedWarrior Project Warrior Care Network Director with US
for Suicide Prevention Month. I wantto thank you Phil for your service to
this country, and I want tothank both of you so much for ticket
a few minutes to come on theshow to talk about this. Thank you
so much, Thank you so muchfor this opportunity. All Right, and
that's going to do it for thisedition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap
(29:34):
things up, I want to offera big thanks to all of our guests,
and of course to all of youfor listening. I'm your host,
Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to youagain real soon.
Welcome to iHeart Radio Communities, apublic affairs special focusing on the biggest issues
impacting you this week. Here's RyanGorman. Thanks for joining us here on
iHeart Radio Communities. I'm Ryan Gorman, and we have an important conversation lined
up for you for this show.September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and
the focus of this show will beon preventing veterans suicigned, as they have
(00:22):
a fifty seven percent higher suicide ratethan non veteran adults. In a bit,
we'll check in with two organizations doingtremendous work on this issue, America's
Warrior Partnership and the Wounded Warrior Project. But right now, to get things
started, I'm joined by doctor MatthewMiller, a veteran and the executive director
for Suicide Prevention in the Department ofVeterans Affairs. Doctor Miller, thanks for
(00:44):
coming on the show, and let'sstart with the work the VA is doing
on the issue of suicide prevention.Yeah, Suicide Prevention Month, as you
mentioned, Ryan, is a greatopportunity to talk about some things that we
know about suicide prevention. For example, we know that suicide is preventable.
It's not inevitable. We know thatthere is hope. We see signs and
(01:10):
anchors of hope within data available tous on suicide prevention efforts. Third,
everyone has a role to play,and talking about ways that that can be
actioned, I think is really importantduring this month. So thanks for the
(01:32):
opportunity to do so. And I'mreally excited about our campaign Don't Wait reach
Out and the new PSAs that we'rereleasing as part of Suicide Prevention Months.
So with these new PSAs, youused research to help inspire and create them
along with veterans. Tell us aboutthe process that went into these public service
(01:56):
advertisements. Yeah, a lot oftalking and listening with veterans, I think
is the central component and the heartof the matter. It's sitting down with
veterans and asking what matters in termsof communicating reaching out for help? What
(02:20):
are the blocks, what are thecommon barriers? What would be a message
that would resonate with you to helpyou work through the barriers that we've heard
about and we've talked about. Youtake all that feedback to those questions from
veterans around the nation, and yousee its packaged together in Don't Wait reach
(02:44):
Out campaign. I'm immensely grateful tothe AD Council for the work that they've
done in partnering with us to createthis campaign. What are some of the
different resources that you have available tohelp veterans who are struggling. I would
say a great starting point is VAdot com slash Reach, and then veterans
(03:07):
or anyone to visit that site candrive what resources they receive. You kind
of drive it on the website bywhat's your click. What's your click is
guided by what you're feeling or thesituation that you're experiencing. So if you
resonate to money problems, you clickon an affiliated area and it'll curate and
(03:37):
give you resources services that can assistyou with that specific area. Executive Director
for Suicide Prevention in the Department ofVeterans Affairs, doctor Matthew Miller, And
again that website is VA dot govslash Reach. Doctor Miller. Thank you
so much for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. Thanks for
your help, Brian, appreciate itall right. I'm Ryan Gorman here on
(04:00):
iHeartRadio Communities, and now let mebring in our next guest. I'm joined
by Jim Lorraine, a military veteranand president of America's Warrior Partnership. You
can learn more about this fantastic organizationwhich is partnering with communities to prevent veteran
suicide at America's Warrior Partnership dot org. September is National Suicide Prevention Month.
(04:21):
Jim, thanks so much for takinga few minutes to come on the show.
This is a topic that we havetalked a lot about in the past,
but for a refresher, can yougive us an overview as to how
your organization works to do what yourmission states prevent veteran suicide. Yeah,
Ryan, thanks for having us on. At the local level, what America's
(04:43):
Warrior Partnership does is that we havenine communities throughout the United States, still
the smallest seeing the Nama Nation ofArizona, and what we do there is
our focus is on connecting to theveterans in their family, understanding where they
want to go, advocating on theirbehalf, and basically improving their quality of
life. We believe that at thelocal level and at the national level that
(05:08):
if you can, if you canimprove a veteran's quality of life through existing
services and access to benefits that theirquality of life goes up, their suicide
rate goes down. On informing ourpractice, we have a suicide study called
Operation Deep Dive, and it's thefirst of its kind to merge to correlate
(05:29):
military service two causes of death.We have a great partnership with the Department
of Defense, and what that partnershipallows us to do is to paint a
picture of down to the zip codelevel, the veteran who is the greatest
risk for taking their life, sothe communities can focus on finding them,
building a relationship, and keeping themgetting upstream. We call it from the
(05:55):
death and preventing their death. Arethere's certain type of veterans, whether it's
because of geographic location, or gender, race, past experiences, home situations,
who are more at risk of potentiallycommitting suicide than others. Yeah,
(06:17):
they're sure are. So what wesee is it depends on the community where
they live. So I'll give youan example, Massachusetts, the veteran who's
the greatest risk looks very different thanFlorida, looks very different than Montana.
All part of our suicide study communities, We've found that geography and community may
(06:41):
have an enormous impact on the suiciderate. Additionally, military service, the
veteran who's the greatest risk. Asan example, if a service member or
of a veteran had a demotion anytimeduring their career, it increased their likelihood
the percentage of likelihood of taking theirown mic by fifty eight percent. Demotion,
(07:04):
you're at high risk. We foundthat the service components that the service
that was at greatest risk was theCoastguard served with surprises when we saw interesting
but when you look, yeah,when you look at the population and then
you look at the number of coastguardsmanwdie by suicide, and then you look
at how many of them are,they're they're they're very they're per capita,
(07:29):
they're overrepresented. And I also sawin the highlights of this study that you
did. And again we're joined bythe President of America's Warrior Partnership Jim Lorraine
for National Suicide Prevention Month, thosewho didn't serve for a long period of
time, we're actually at greatest riskfor suicide or overdose. Yeah, exactly.
(07:57):
So what we found was every yearyou served in the military decreased your
likelihood by two percent. So ifhe has somebody who did twenty years in
the military think got that they've reducedtheir likelihood by about forty percent. But
those who had two or three yearsof service, which right now the contracts
are around for four years of service, which indicated that they had they didn't
(08:20):
complete a term, a contractual term, but they may have been discharged for
honorable or general discharge. They werethey were at high risk. So when
you're looking at so for us,we know that there's finite resources, and
our focus is how do I usemy finite resources to find the population at
(08:43):
greatest risk, engage them early,connect them to services that improve their quality
of life, and in the endthe outcome is a lower suicidegree. Were
you able to get an idea asto why, say members of the coast
Guard or members of the military whodidn't serve that long, why there was
(09:05):
such an increased risk for suicide amongthat population, you know, That's that's
the phase we're in right now.You know, in the national narrative,
when you talk about suicide, everyonetalks about how someone took their life.
What we're focused on is who tooktheir life and the why we're in the
y phase right now. Why whydoes this population overrepresent themselves? Why is
(09:30):
it that in like in the stateof Massachusetts. Why our firearms? The
third in line method, why isoverdose so overrepresented across the board? Why
you know? And and then whatare the other factors? One of the
(09:50):
we have a we have a greatpartnership that we're going into right now with
TransUnion to incorporate their data around toSEDENS so that we can look at financial
status, justice involvement and to getto that, to get to that why,
not only the who, but thewhy, and then we'll get to
(10:11):
the house. Now. I dowant to talk about the how for a
moment, because in your numbers youdo something different. I think this is
really important. You do something different, correct me if I'm wrong, than
the VA you do include overdose statisticsin there, right, Well, we
kept them separate, so we reportedpurely on suicide and then we also reported
(10:37):
on self injury mortality, which iswhich is predominantly overdose. And the reason
we did that was we were astonishedat how great the number of guests from
overdose were that no one was payingattention to, almost equal or greater to
the level of those that were categorizeda suicide. And when I say overdose,
(11:01):
those are the overdose that we lookedat, where those that were categorized
as accidents or undetermined, and inour mind was whether it's a suicide,
an accident, undetermined, if it'spreventable, let's engage with it. Let's
figure this out, so if wecan stop these deaths. And can you
give us a sense because we hearabout this number and sometimes it varies,
(11:24):
seventeen eighteen twenty veterans per day takingtheir own lives. But when you add
in that component you were just talkingabout whether it's accidental or an overdose that
perhaps was on purpose, that numberbecomes even more alarming than the number that
I just mentioned, which I think, in and of itself shocks people,
(11:46):
it does, you know, Ithink you know when we look at it,
it's not about the numbers. Youknow, the numbers are a way
to measure success or failure or successor how you're progressing. But really the
point is that veterans die at almosttwice the rate of non veterans, and
(12:07):
you gotta wonder why, And that'swhere I we are. It's like,
why is this happening? Why?Why with all the services and all the
benefits and all the opportunities that veteranshave that non veterans don't. Why are
they taking their lives at such ahigh rate, Why what's pushing them into
that? And and that's that's wherewe're headed with Operation Deep Dives. To
(12:31):
get to the why is to reallyto figure this out for once and for
all, and to use empirical data, not not innuendo, not stories,
but data. You know, yearsago, if you had said, Hey,
the Coast Guard is the large isthe most at risk service, I
sort of probably would have laughed andsaid, I don't know about that.
(12:52):
We proved it by numbers, andI and I feel the states that participate
with US are confident in their numbersthat they give us because they give they
provide us with everybody everyone who diedDUD is confident with the numbers that with
the data that they provide us.I'm very confident in it. But but
(13:15):
Ryan, I gotta tell you,it's not about numbers. It's about people,
and that's what matters. That's whatmatters. Talk about how you work
to help veterans become empowered, andyou have a four step plan to do
just that. Yeah, So ourour approach and the fourth step plan is
connect, educate, advocate, andcollaborate. And connect means really building a
(13:41):
relationship with the veterans, understanding whothey are, where they are, and
where they want to go in theirlife. And let me stop you there
on connect because how important is itthat you know the people you're connecting with
their veterans and you're able to sharethat experience Because I've always found with different
veterans organizations that I talked to,there is a real benefit in having veterans
(14:05):
connect with other veterans. Oh,without a doubt. Peer to peer groups
are great. Yeah, but Ihave to tell you it's about relationship.
You can have a transactional program oryou can have a relational program. We're
a relational program. We want tobuild a relationship with a veteran where they
trust us and then we stick withthem through their journey and and so that's
(14:28):
the connect piece. It can't beit can't be transactional where you just say,
hey, I'm gonna call in,I'm going to talk to somebody and
I'm probably never going to talk tothem again. It's you know, we
want veterans to know somebody's got yourback and it's us again. That but
that goes to the educate piece,educating veterans about opportunities to move forward.
(14:50):
We also educate the communities about thecommunity that serves them. And then advocacy,
it's not to enable them, it'sto empower them. It's like you
agitate a roadblock, I can't getpast this, this bureaucracy, and then
we step in to help out.And we've got our program that's called the
Network. You know right now we'reon track to serve six thousand vets just
(15:13):
this year. We've got an eightynine percent success enclosure rate. It's the
resources are out there. What wefocus on building in the relationship with a
veteran and connecting them to the servicesthat improve their quality of life. And
finally, for those listening for SuicidePrevention Month, they're hearing the problem and
(15:37):
they want to help and support thework that you're doing in America's Warrior Partnership.
What are some of the ways theycan do that televised that might need
help or their family that they cancontact us at America's Warrior Partnership dot org.
Go to the network and you canmake a request online and we'll work
(15:58):
with it. The pieces on ona suicide study, if there's a if
there's loved ones who've lost someone toa premature death within the last two years,
we have a program where we talkto him and we talk to the
friends, families, and co workersof the deceit to understand the last year
of their life. This is partof Operation Deep Dive and it gets us
(16:22):
to what did the last year oftheir life look like so that we can
see where the touch points are toprevent. And then lastly, any financial
support as we go through Operation Deepsiveis welcome, but most most importantly,
we're about serving eves. And againthe website is America's Warrior Partnership dot org.
(16:45):
That's America's Warrior Partnership dot org.Jim Lorraine, military veteran and president
of America's Warrior Partnership with US forNational Suicide Prevention Month. Jim, I
want to thank you so much,obviously for your service to this country and
your continued service and fighting this reallyimportant fight. We appreciate you doing that
and coming on the show. Thankyou. Ryan, I appreciate you having
(17:07):
us all right, and once againI'm Ryan Gorman here on iHeartRadio Communities and
now let me bring in our finalguests for this special Suicide Prevention Month edition
of the show. I'm joined bymarine veteran Phil Crabby and doctor Aaron Fletcher,
clinical psychologist and Wounded Warrior Project WarriorCare Network Director. You can learn
(17:30):
more about the work the Wounded WarriorProject does at Wounded Warrior Project dot org.
I want to thank both of youso much for taking a few minutes
to come on the show. AndPhil, let me start with you,
if you don't mind, tell usabout your personal experience, your battle with
PTSD and suicidal thoughts. My issue, it's very intimate. It started.
(17:56):
My journey to suicide started in twothousand and six and I was on deployment
in Iraq. I lost two ofmy guys to do a roadside bomb,
and my interpreter and three others thatwere severely injured. That really that was
very traumatic, but I didn't dealwith it. Then. I compartment alized
(18:21):
it, I shut it off,and I just didn't deal with it.
And that led to heavy drinking anddrug abuse. And I did that for
fifteen years. And your body canonly take that for so long before it
(18:41):
says, okay, enough is enough. November thirtieth, two twenty, I
was standing in my kitchen at threeo'clock in the morning. I had been
awake for three days straight. Ihad been drinking for just as long,
and I just took another hit ofamphetamines and my depression kept telling me,
(19:02):
you know you can end this,and that particular day, I agreed with
it. So I loaded my thirtyeight revolver, I stuffed the barrel in
my mouth, I put some pressureon the trigger, and just before I
pulled the trigger, two thoughts poppedinto my mind. Number One, well,
as I had made a promise toa good friend of mine that I
would have the courage to survive,and that is very powerful. I would
(19:26):
have the courage to forgive myself orthe things I've done in the past,
and I would remember the painted sacrificethat I had been through up to that
point. That was the first thoughtin my mind. The second thing is
I didn't want my seven year oldson to find me dead in my kitchen.
That there was my my journey torecovery. It was very hard,
(19:52):
it was very long, but I'vebeen sober for three years now and the
Who Need Warrior Project has been herethe whole time. One thing that we've
learned through the Wounded Warrior Projects AnnualWarrior Survey is that financial wellness can have
a big impact on veterans, includingthose who end up having suicidal thoughts.
(20:18):
Was that the case for you,absolutely not being able to put food on
my table, consistently not knowing wheremy next meal was going to come from?
That those are things that I constantlythought about, and I was very
ashamed of that, and I feltinadequate. I felt as if I couldn't
(20:45):
provide for my family, and thosesuicidal thoughts were there, and it took
a lot of retraining my brain toovercome that. I just want to follow
up on that point real quick,because I think this is important. You're
doing these dangerous life or death missionsin places like a rock. I've heard
(21:10):
veterans described this before the mission orientedwork handling expensive equipment, working with top
notch technology, and then once theyreturn home, sometimes working in more ordinary
jobs that has an impact on theirmental health too. Yes, I had
a huge impact. And when Igot out of the military, like doctor
(21:33):
Fletcher says, you know, Ilost my purpose. I didn't have right,
Yeah, Yeah, I lost mypurpose and that's not a good place
to be in Doctor Fletcher, letme bring you into the conversation and again
I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by PhilKrabby, a marine veteran, and doctor
Aaron Fletcher, clinical psychologist and WoundedWarrior Project Warrior Care Network Director. You
(21:56):
can learn more about the tremendous workthis organization does it Wounded Warrior Project dot
org. So, doctor Fletcher,all the data shows that the suicide rates
among veterans much much higher than nonveteran adults. During your work with veterans
as part of the Wounded Warrior Project, what have you learned about all of
this? Absolutely so, we knowat Wounded Warrior Projects, for the veterans
(22:22):
that we serve, more than onein four have had suicidal thoughts in the
past year, and one in fivehave attempted suicide. And it still was
just describing rates are higher for warriorsthat are struggling financially. So we know
that one in three of those individualsyou know who are struggling financially have thought
(22:44):
of suicide in the last year,which is really concerning given that sixty four
percent of the warriors that we've surveyedhave struggled to make ends meet at some
point in this past year. Andso where that gets to be concerning is
that when you become when your basicneeds aren't being met, when you're worried
(23:06):
about, as still said, whereyour next meal is going to come from?
Are you going to be evicted?Are you going to be able to
put a roof over your family's head? You know, how are we going
to pay the bills? It becomesreally hard to make addressing some of the
underlying mental health challenges that are thatare veterans often experienced that much harder to
deal with. It's hard to thinkfor yourself that I'm struggling with these financial
(23:29):
stresses, that I should make timeto prioritize my mental health and go seek
counseling. And so in the WarriorProjects, we really want to provide programs
and services that really treat the wholeperson, that address their mental health and
wellness needs, their financial needs,their physical health and wellness, because we
(23:49):
know that all of these are intertwinedand if they and they all need to
be addressed in order to make surethat it is still said, there's a
sense of purpose, that there's asense of hope, and that they're you
know, tuned into a community wherethey feel supportive. Phil shared with us
(24:10):
what brought him out of those suicidalthoughts. Is there something during the course
of your work, doctor Fletcher atthe Wounded Warrior Project that you've seen something
that perhaps is consistent among the veteransyou've talked to, or maybe there are
different reasons, But what have youheard in terms of veterans when they reach
that breaking point where they're potentially goingto commit suicide? What is it that
(24:36):
typically pulls them out of that?You know, again, I think that
could be again different for different individuals, but I think what will pull them
back from that is the resilience thatthey have within themselves. That still talks
about he was able to you know, pause in that incredibly overwhelming and fear
(25:00):
every moment to think about a promisehe made to a good friend, to
his family, and so being ableto tune into that internal fortitude and that
resilience that we know our veterans have. I mean, you just described how
they're you know, engaging in thesemissions that most of the you know,
(25:22):
populations wouldn't have the courage to do. And so I think tapping into that
knowing that there is a piece ofthat strong service oriented, committed individual that
is still there even in those reallyoverwhelming moments that they can they can take
(25:45):
that time and reach out and thenknowing there's there's support out there, which
is why having these conversations and sharingthe resources to know that if in those
moments they stop and they say Iwant help, that there's going to be
people there to help them. Andthat's you know, again, when the
(26:07):
Warrior Projects mission is, We're goingto be there on the other side of
the phone when you say I wanthelp. What are some of the resources
if you can give us an overviewthat the Wounded Warrior Project provides for suicide
prevention, because I'm sure when alot of people here Wounded Warrior Project,
they've seen the TV commercials and they'veseen the stories from those who have been
(26:30):
helped by the Wounded Warrior Project,but maybe the mental health aspect, the
suicide prevention aspect, doesn't come tomind for them. Yeah, that's such
a great question. And so wedo this through education awareness in programs that
address the underlying risk factors for suicide. And so those risk factors are feeling
(26:53):
isolated, feeling is though you don'thave a sense of purpose, financially,
and so One Warrior Project has programsand services that helps with each of those
kind of pillars of risk factors.So, if you're feeling like you don't
have a sense of purpose or youfeel so incredibly isolated, we have our
(27:18):
Connection program that is designed to hostevents in the community where veterans and their
families can come and engage with eachother, engage in really fun activities and
build that sense of community to reducethat isolation. And so if you're stuggling
financially, we have programs to helpyou obtain employment. We have programs to
(27:41):
help you seek the compensation that you'veearned through the VA if you've experienced any
visible or invisible injuries during your militaryservice. So again, really looking to
provide services to increase the protective factorsagainst suicide. And finally, Phil,
let me turn back to you fora moment. If there are veterans listening
(28:03):
or friends family of veterans listening whohave been struggling, what would your message
be to them. My message isclear and it's concise. Asked for help.
Nobody can help you, and youcan't get better if you don't ask
(28:25):
for help. You've got to recout, recout, ask for help, Call
the Wounded Warrior Project Resource Center andjust tell them exactly what's going on.
If the Wounded Warrior Project isn't foryou, go to the VA tell them
exactly what's going on so that theycan help you again. The website is
Wounded Warrior Project dot org. That'sWounded Warrior Project dot org. There is
(28:51):
a lot of great information out thereon the website for warriors, for families
and different ways for you to getinvolved volved, including donating to help make
sure that this again tremendous and crucialorganization can continue to do the important work
that it does day in and dayout. Marine veteran Phil Crabbie and doctor
(29:12):
Aaron Fletcher, clinical psychologist and WoundedWarrior Project Warrior Care Network Director with US
for Suicide Prevention Month. I wantto thank you Phil for your service to
this country, and I want tothank both of you so much for ticket
a few minutes to come on theshow to talk about this. Thank you
so much, Thank you so muchfor this opportunity. All Right, and
that's going to do it for thisedition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap
(29:34):
things up, I want to offera big thanks to all of our guests,
and of course to all of youfor listening. I'm your host,
Ryan Gorman. We'll talk to youagain real soon.
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