CAMDEN — SIANDHARA BONNET
El Dorado News-Times
Staff Writer
Rep. Craig Christiansen was nearly in tears as he read a Facebook post from his daughter to the senators and representatives at the El Dorado Conference Center on Monday.
“I want to take the easy way like you, more so than ever before, but I’ve seen and am living in the aftermath,” he said. “I have screamed until I lost my voice. I’ve cried until my eyes were swollen shut.”
Christiansen’s son-in-law — who was a veteran with a medical discharge with anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and more — died by suicide three weeks ago near Clovis, New Mexico, he said.
Christiansen shared a testimony near the end of the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs; and House Committee on Aging, Children and Youth, Legislative and Military Affairs joint meeting.
The two committees met to listen to testimonies, statistics and veteran services regarding veteran suicide prevention.
According to the 2019 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, the number of Veterean suicide deaths per year increased from 5,787 in 2005 to 6,139 in 2017.
According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2017 suicide was ranked as the 10th leading cause of death in Arkansas with 631 deaths. Arkansas was ranked 9th in the United States for deaths by suicide.
Vice chairman Sen. Trent Garner (R-El Dorado, D-27), who sponsors the Arkansas Legislative Study on Veteran Affairs, said he learned that there is room for better collaboration, particularly within data sharing.
He also said we need to better identify the link between when someone is in distress and connecting them with resources.
“Sometimes it seems like we need to be more aggressive at getting (veterans) the help they need,” Garner said.
He said he hopes to discuss that missing link more in future meetings.
During the meeting, the committees heard from Mandy Thomas, injury and violence prevention section chief at the Department of Health. Thomas said Arkansas is the first state in the nation to have a full-time suicide prevention hotline.
Thomas said the rate of veterans who die by suicide is 43.5 of all ages of veterans, which is per 100,000 people. The national suicide rate is 31.
“In looking at raw numbers, it’s hard to get a good comparison,” Thomas said during the meeting.
Thomas said there are six people taking phone calls for the hotline and one supervisor, who also takes calls. She said 76 percent of calls made go to the Arkansas center and the average call time is 10 minutes.
Thomas said 13,331 veterans called the hotline and 830 went unanswered, but rolled over to a different call center. She said if there were more people taking calls, 100 percent of the calls
would be answered.
The committees also heard testimonies from Reagan Nix, the daughter of a veteran who died by suicide in September.
“He was a good person, but he had a lot of demons,” she said during the meeting.
Nix said her family tried to help her father and went to the Veterans Association, but their answer was to change his medication, which only resulted in mood swings and her father not being able to get out of bed.
She her dad attempted suicide in August and was kept at the VA for two days and later released. Nix said the VA did not schedule an appointment for him until this month.
Sen. Bob Ballinger was moved to near tears during Nix’s testimony. He said it’s easy to throw out statistics, but you don’t fully understand them until you see how an event like suicide affects families.
“This is an extremely hard issue with no easy solutions,” Ballinger said. “Anything we do at the state level won’t compare to all the investments veterans pour into the community.”
The committees also heard from JP Nolan, a former specialist in the Army and a corporal in the MARINE CORP.
Nolan said he benefited from VA resources, and getting more veterans involved with the association could help prevent suicide by also providing a sense of community.
He said another way to help prevent veteran suicide may be enforcing Red Flag Laws. Nolan said many of the mass shooters within recent past, as well as veterans who died by suicide have left digital footprints leading up to their events.
“I’m not in any form for gun control or anything along those lines,” Nolan said. “I simply think that if someone is putting out hate speech or doing something on the internet that would let people understand that they’re in a position to hurt themself or others, then we should take advantage of that and save lives and act accordingly.”
Nolan said he thinks there are strong possibilities for everyone to work together more in a more coordinated manner, something Garner, Ballinger and many other speakers echoed.
Garner said the next joint committee meeting may not be until January 2020, but would it to be hosted in northeast or northwest Arkansas.