Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) released its 2014 calendar year Suicide Event Report (DoDSER), which details the number of suicide attempts and deaths for U.S. service members.
The DoDSER also includes detailed assessments of demographic information, behavioral health history, and deployment history. Data for each DoDSER report were collected by the services and augmented by data from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES; for active duty suicide decedents) and the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC; for suicide decedents and suicide attempts).
In 2014, there were 269 deaths by suicide among active component service members (compared to 259 deaths by suicide in 2013). There were 169 deaths by suicide among the selected reserve component in 2014, 80 in the reserve and 89 in the National Guard (compared to 220 deaths by suicide in 2013).
The suicide rate per 100,000 in 2014 was 19.9 for active component service members, 21.9 for the reserve, and 19.4 for National Guard.
The 2014 DoDSER findings are available at www.dspo.mil.
Service members and their families in crisis should seek help immediately by contacting the Military and Veteran Crisis Line at 800-273-8255, (press 1 for military) for 24/7 crisis support. The crisis line also provides an online chat (www.militarycrisisline.net) and text service (838255). The Military and Veteran Crisis Line provides 24/7 confidential support to all service members and their families.