FILE - Col. Elspeth Ritchie, a doctor in the Office of the Army Surgeon General, discusses efforts to study and understand suicide among American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, in this May 29, 2008 file photo, during a news conference at the Pentagon. The Pentagon plans to release a report Friday April 25, 2014on military suicides. But those numbers differ a bit from the totals provided by the services because of complicated accounting changes in how the department counts suicides by reservists. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) (The Associated Press)
WASHINGTON – Officials say suicides across the military dropped by more than 15 percent last year but rose among Army National Guard and Reserve soldiers.
The overall totals provided by the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps give some hope that the broad swath of prevention programs and increased efforts to identify troops at risk may be taking hold after several years of increasing numbers.
The rise in suicides among Army National Guard and Reserve members raises questions about whether those programs are getting to the citizen soldiers who may not have the same access to support networks and help that their active duty comrades receive.
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