Social service organizations in NKY are coming together to raise awareness about the phenomenon of veteran suicide and provide resources to veterans and their families.
“I really thrived in the military,” said Doug Witt, a peer support specialist at Northkey Community Care and Army veteran. “I loved the military. I was a good soldier.”
After serving in Germany from 1979 to 1989, he found it difficult to return to civilian life. It’s a struggle many veterans deal with, even if they were never in combat, he said.
“All the proud feelings I had of being a veteran kind of didn’t really matter to anybody else, except for myself,” Witt told LINK nky in a phone call. “And then I didn’t feel supported and felt very, very lost and very alone.”
Witt was one of the speakers at an event put on by the Northern Kentucky Service Members, Veterans and Families Suicide Prevention Coalition, a partnership of local service organizations, near the Roebling Bridge in Covington on Wednesday. Coinciding with the onset of suicide prevention month, which is September, the event memorialized 660 flags near the bridge, planted in honor of the rough number of veterans who die by suicide in the United States each month.
That’s about 22 deaths by suicide per day.
Witt has lived through multiple suicide attempts and now works as a peer counselor, helping others navigate their own struggles. He’s also in active recovery. His first suicide attempt was three days after he got home.
The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs published a suicide prevention report last year, which tracked the data on veteran suicide and compared it to suicide more broadly. 2021 was the most recent year for which data was available.
“In 2021, 6,392 Veterans died by suicide, an increase of 114 suicides from 2020,” according to the report’s introduction. “When looking at increases in rates from 2020 to 2021, the age- and sex-adjusted suicide rate among veterans increased by 11.6%, while the age- and sex-adjusted suicide rate among non-veteran U.S. adults increased by 4.5%. Veterans remain at elevated risk for suicide.”
An earlier report broke out the figures by state. Ninety-eight of the state’s 790 suicides were veterans. Nearly half of those veteran suicides, 40 in total, occurred in the 55 to 74 age cohort. Over 75% of those deaths were deaths by firearms, a point hammered home during the event.
Deborah Winkler, a Covington native and the service learning project-based learning coordinator at Holmes Middle School, also spoke on Wednesday. Winkler’s family comes from a long line of veterans, and her daughter, Nicole, is a social worker who works with veterans. Winkler’s son, Matthew, served two tours in Afghanistan as a Marine. He died by suicide on Sept. 16, 2016, after penning a four-page letter to his mother.
“When his contract was up, he tried to re-enlist, but due to some physical and his mental [health] at that time with PTSD, they would not allow Matthew to re-enlist,” Winkler said. “So, he came home in 2014. The whole time he was home for that, about a year and a half, he struggled, both financially, mentally and physically. He attempted to try to get help and was turned away or unable to receive that help.”
Like Witt, Winkler spends much of her time these days advocating for suicide awareness. Although she commended the region’s progress with the issue, there are still many things that need to be addressed.
“There is still plenty that can be done, not only for the veterans but also for the families,” Winkler said. “In 2014 when I attempted to try to get Matthew help, I was told he had to do it.”
It’s much easier now for families and loved ones of veterans to get help than it was in 2016. She pointed to the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which anyone can reach by dialing 988, as an example. The hotline now has a special extension, which one can reach by dialing 988 and then selecting 1 when prompted, that connects veteran callers to peer support specialists who are also veterans.
“Veterans need to talk to a veteran,” Witt said, “to say, ‘I understand where you’ve been because I’ve been there. You’re not alone.’ That’s the main thing that we emphasize with the coalition is make veterans feel like you’re not alone.”
Winkler also pointed to recent legislation, which established the suicide prevention coalitions statewide and allowed family members of veterans experiencing thoughts of suicide to contact service organizations and crisis lines on their behalf to get help, ideally removing the barriers her son experienced.
Removing the stigma around suicide and mental health was another main point Witt emphasized in his conversation with LINK nky and at the event. Even the way suicide is discussed can have an effect–he encouraged people to use the phrase ‘died by suicide,’ for instance, rather than ‘committed suicide.’
“‘Committing’ kind of makes it seem like it’s a crime,” Witt said, “and there’s shame with somebody like myself who has suicide attempts, whether it’s religious, whether it’s society that puts it back on the person and says ‘you’re damaged.'”
The community can help, though, Witt and Winkler said. The easiest thing to do is establish connections with veterans and their families, help them cultivate the sense of camaraderie and belonging they miss from the military.
“There’s still the veterans that that are lost and are not connected,” Witt said. “The opposite of addiction is connection. The opposite of a lot of the mental health [problems], the opposite of despair is connection. So connecting is the solution.”
Learn more about the Northern Kentucky Service Members, Veterans, and Families Suicide Prevention Coalition and get more complete data on veteran suicide below. Anyone struggling with suicidal ideation can call 988 from their phones 24/7 to speak with a crisis counselor.