Program Targets Veteran Suicides

Fledgling prevention effort relies on shared experience
By Anna Badkhen, The Boston Globe Staff

He knew exactly what it was like, Kevin Lambert told the Iraq war veteran at a Dunkin’ Donuts shop north of Boston: the insomnia, the bouts of depression, the hyper-vigilance that makes you imagine roadside bombs hidden in street garbage. Like the veteran, Lambert was 24, had served in Iraq, and had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

more stories like this"I know how you feel," Lambert said. He listened attentively to the veteran’s story before telling him where he could find counseling.

With suicide rates on the rise among military personnel, Massachusetts last month launched a one-of-a-kind program to prevent suicide among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The program’s seven members -a woman whose husband has served in Afghanistan, five young combat veterans, including Lambert, and a mental health expert – say their personal experience helps them reach out to veterans who are considering suicide or who simply need help navigating the complicated and often confusing system of veterans’ benefits and services…

"Being in combat and then trying to readjust to the civilian life – it’s not easy. No one understands that because they haven’t been there," said Lambert, who was deployed with the Army to Mosul and Baghdad in 2005 and 2006. "But we’ve been there. We can relate."

Members of the program, which is run by the Department of Veterans Services, funded by the Department of Public Health, and known by its acronym, SAVE, hope that their approach will help veterans overcome the sense of alienation and frustration that, combined with mental trauma incurred during combat, can lead to suicide. They meet with veterans, take them out for meals, refer them to counselors and job fairs, escort them to agencies that provide services and benefits to veterans, and explain to their relatives why veterans often appear depressed or restless.

SAVE members say they find inspiration in the story of the Belchertown Marine Jeffrey Lucey, an Iraq veteran who killed himself in 2004 after struggling to find help for his post-traumatic stress disorder. When Lucey and his family asked the federal Department of Veterans Affairs for help, "we found a system that threw impediments in the way of his getting services," said the Marine’s father, Kevin Lucey.

"We asked the Lucey family: ‘What could have saved your son Jeffrey from taking his life?’ " said one of the program’s members, James Crosby, a Dorchester resident and a former Marine who has been confined to a wheelchair since shrapnel from a 122mm rocket pierced his torso in Iraq in 2004. The Luceys spoke with Crosby and his colleagues for hours, sharing a vision of an agency that helps veterans receive the benefits and services to which they are entitled and eases their transition into civilian life.

Coleman Nee, a Department of Veterans Services official who oversees the program, said he was not aware of any such program in any other state.

more stories like thisSince the program was launched Feb. 11, Lambert and others have assisted more than 180 veterans in Massachusetts. Approximately 10 of those people were likely to commit suicide when SAVE members first spoke to them, said the program’s manager, Jennifer Merenda, who previously worked as a mental health counselor.

Studies have shown that as many as 30 percent of these veterans may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Massachusetts has no record of how many of its suicides were committed by veterans. But nationally, at least 283 combat veterans who left the military between October 2001 and the end of 2005 have committed suicide. Among current members of the military, the suicide rate nearly doubled from 9.1 confirmed suicides per 100,000 troops in 2001 to 17.3 in 2006.

This year, the Army reported that at least 121 Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007, compared with the 99 soldiers who killed themselves in 2006.

Most SAVE members are not licensed to provide mental health counseling, but they are trained to identify people at risk of committing suicide and refer them to counseling services, run by state, federal and private agencies.

"The biggest part of what we do is we listen to them," said Crosby. He and his colleagues spend hours talking to the veterans – on the phone and in person, at all hours of the day and night.

Last week, the program received an e-mail with the subject line that read: "Please HELP!" A young Massachusetts woman was writing that her husband, a Marine who had served in Iraq, told her he was thinking about killing himself.

Cayenne Isaksen, whose husband, a Marine, served in Afghanistan, got on the phone the next morning.

"You are not alone, I promise you," she said, sitting at a desk in her small downtown cubicle cluttered with phone lists and fliers. She had arranged to meet with the couple at their house the next day and to bring along a colleague, a Coast Guard veteran, "someone your husband can identify with."

A significant part of suicide prevention is helping veterans through the maze of services and benefits accorded them by the government and "hold their hand as they go through the process," said Samuel Hamm, a Navy seaman who served in Kosovo and western Africa. Hamm is helping a triage nurse who treated the wounded at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center during the first year of the war in Iraq. The nurse, who suffers from PTSD, is too traumatized to work with severely injured patients and needs to be trained in a different field. Hamm took her to a VA office to get the paperwork she needs to qualify for the retraining.

Similarly, Lambert has taken the Marine from the northern suburbs of Boston to the VA to get his paperwork.

"It’s hard for these guys to go to the VA, it’s frustrating sometimes. By having us go with them it takes that frustration out of it," said Lambert, who had to figure out the intricacies of the system on his own when he returned from Iraq.

"All of a sudden we see an agency with people who are willing to go out and help these people," said Kevin Lucey, who is suing the VA for the wrongful death of his son.

Had such a program existed in 2004, he said, "we believe that Jeff would be alive today."

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