Raising awareness for suicide in the military

According to research done at the University of Kentucky, suicide stands as the leading cause of violent death among veterans, particularly among older and rural-dwelling veterans.

“While we are a veteran based group, because most of us are veterans, and that happens to be the focus of us. This is bigger than just veterans. I mean, you know, mental health is a huge crisis in the country,” said Jason Spayd is a Kentucky guardsman, he says he has served in the military since 1992, over three decades.

“For now, I think we’re starting to get a little bit better about the idea that we can have issues associated with, with our service and the things that we’ve been asked to do, post traumatic stress and mental health issues that relate to service is not a new thing, right. I mean, it’s since the beginning of war, we’ve had these issues. But we, tend to have to relearn these lessons, every time you have, you know, a generation go off to war and come back,” added Spayd.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, firearms were the primary method of suicide death for service members and family members.

And while, to some extent it may still be taboo, “we call it the veterans suicide awareness march, it’s just a group of people, like we don’t, we don’t have a charter, we’re not, we’re not necessarily raising money and have a 501C or anything like that, at this particular time, we just partner with folks, local, because we’re trying to build a sense of community within Clark County and the neighboring counties,” also said Spayd.

He says says the march is in honor of those who are no longer with us.

“If we go to the, to the research about 22 veteran suicides per day, right, the thought is that we wear 22 pounds or more, we walk 22 miles on Memorial Day,” he added.

Adding that, it is ok not to be ok.

“The biggest thing is you need to find somebody before that happens and have a plan to have somebody to talk to, we usually see it common, we usually know, we’re headed to a bad place,” said Spayd.

If you or anyone you know may be contemplating suicide, you can call the toll free hotline at 988.