[xoxoxoBruce]

In August 2016, the VA released what was billed as the "most comprehensive analysis of veteran suicide rates" ever conducted, which examined more than 55 million veterans' records from 1979 to 2014 from all 50 states.

"The current analysis indicates that in 2014, an average of 20 veterans a day died from suicide" -- or one every 72 minutes, the report said.

The data also showed that only six of the 20 veterans who die in the U.S. each day are enrolled in the VA and only three are in active treatment, indicating a need for more outreach by the VA.

The VA's report said that about 65 percent of all veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older, and veterans accounted for 18 percent of all deaths from suicide among U.S. adults, a decrease from 22 percent in 2010.
Since 2001, the rate of suicide among veterans who use VA services increased by 8.8 percent, while the rate of suicide among veterans who do not use VA services increased by 38.6 percent, the report said.

The toll-free Veterans Crisis Line is 1-800-273-8255, press 1
"As some of you may know, veterans tend to come to a VA -- either drive a car or come to the VA -- and actually suicide on our property," Shulkin said last Tuesday, stressing the need for the Department of Veterans Affairs to do more to curb veteran suicides, estimated at 20 daily nationwide.

"There are a number of reasons, not all of which I completely understand," for veterans to choose to end their lives at the VA, he said, "but one of them being they don't want their families to have to discover them."

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