Female suicide attempts should not be ignored

10/5/2017

response to the Canadian Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Canada Joint Suicide Prevention Strategy

Why dismiss stats showing higher suicidal behaviours amongst women?

Just because there have been little reported cases of suicide mortality amongst female military personnel or veterans does not mean there is no problem for females as well.

The CMAJ statistics clearly indicate:

Lifetime suicidal ideation among military personnel for women is 18.4% (5.3% in the past year) and men 14.9% (4.0% in the past year).
Lifetime suicide plan among military personnel for women is 6.7% and 5.9% for men. There was no data in the past year.
Lifetime suicide attempts among military personnel for women 5.4% (1.1% in past year) and men 2.6% (0.2% in past year)

Veteran’s suicide: not just a male issue

Death by suicide was 2.5 times higher for female veterans and 1.42 times higher for male veterans than in similar aged Canadians in the general population (Source: 2016 Expert Panel ).

Research and support for female military and veterans is needed!

We all know that the CAF can't go out and make more CAF female deaths so that researchers have the numbers to do the same type of study as is done on the men.
That is why the research about military female suicide prevention cannot be conducted "the same way" as the research conducted for the men.

A DIFFERENT study design that specifically addresses women is required

There are lots of study types that could provide more information about female suicides and can provide tangible answers despite the low numbers of female the CAF and VAC presently have compared to men.
I know this will require more work, more money, but this will allow to get real gender specific answers.
Below are some options and example that can be used:
http://research.library.gsu.edu/c.php?g=115595&p=755213

pool the stats

work with other first responder groups (paramedics etc) , police forces (RCMP/city police/OPP) within Canada to pool together everyone's female stats and look for common issues/trends/prevention strategies. By pooling with other "similar" groups.. there will be enough numbers to do a real study.
Work with other nations militaries (US/UK/AU/NZ) to gather a pool numbers for female stats and look for common issues/trends/prevention strategies

Retrospective study

Complete a retrospective study (go back for as many years as necessary until have the needed numbers of females to do a proper study) for CAF/VA to get around the low number issue.

Prospective or Matched

Conduct a prospective study. Follow all women joining the military (a cohort).. and continue following them for life.. then you will with time have the needed numbers.
Conduct a prospective matched study. It does not need as many women to sign up because they will be matched to similar risk men and/or other civilian women (depending on the research question being asked) and then followed over their whole career for what differences the groups have.

Qualitative

Conduct a qualitative study to be done specific to serving women, or vets or families of female suicides.. to capture the female specific components of a successful suicide strategy. Its interviews that find the common threads/concerns/issues.

Provide equivalent access to care and programs

Ensure that all resiliency programs, peer support programs, case management support, caring contacts, OSI clinics include greater support for females and for the topic of Military Sexual Trauma (MST).