In its efforts to better understand suicide among all its components, the Department of Defense released its first quarterly suicide report (QSR), today, for the four quarters of 2013. The report summarizes suicide counts and annual rates for the active component, reserves, and National Guard. Additionally, the QSR shows calendar year 2013 quarterly suicide counts, annual suicide counts, and annual suicide rates for each of the services. It also reports 2012 annual counts and annual rates as published in the department’s 2012 Suicide Event Report (DoDSER) annual report.
The Department of Defense considers one loss to suicide too many, and will continue to do everything possible to prevent suicide in our military. The QSR is intended to communicate the department’s suicide data on a routine and frequent basis. A breakdown of 2013 suicide counts by quarter and resources for service members and their families, who may be facing challenges, can be found at: http://www.suicideoutreach.org/SuicideData/QuarterlyReports.aspx