Actionable solutions to support the mental health of US veterans | Charles P. Smith

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Veterans in the United States take their own lives at an alarming rate. Suggesting new ways to prioritize mental health in the military, veterans advocate Charles P. Smith offers a data-driven plan to help prevent suicide and ensure service members get proper care before, during and after active duty.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Elise Hugh and you're listening to Ted Talks Daily. In today's talk, former Marine Charles
0:08.7	Smith reveals the devastating mental health problems among America's service members and veterans.
0:14.2	When I first heard this talk, the numbers he shares on veterans' suicide and overdose, stunned
0:19.7	and sadden me. But this talk isn't helpless. It's hopeful.
0:24.4	We can take concrete steps to prioritize the mental health of our service members. Charles Smith gave
0:30.6	this talk from the stage at TED at Wells Fargo in 2020. So on May 6th of 2019, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, clouds were that puffy white.
0:45.0	It was a perfect spring day. I was walking back to my office. My phone rang, and it was one of my
0:51.9	lieutenants. I said, hey, John, how are you he said sir i'm good but i've got some bad news
0:59.4	he said our executive officer died that weekend we went back and forth he said what do you mean
1:06.6	what are you talking about i asked him what happened he said sir he killed himself
1:13.0	i walked around my office for a couple hours in a complete fog trying to understand what
1:23.3	had happened why i had just communicated with him a few months earlier and I had no idea that
1:30.0	this officer was in trouble and I fought myself as a leader for not having known that I went on
1:37.8	this process of trying to figure out why what's happening in the veteran community why are these
1:42.8	things going on I read reports from the
1:44.9	Department of Veteran Affairs. Department of Defense. I've read national studies on mental health
1:50.3	and the issues associated with it. I'm going to share with you some of the things I found out.
1:57.7	The Department of Veteran Affairs has taken the lead on veteran suicide, and it's actually their number one priority.
2:02.7	Based on the reports they have and the numbers that I've calculated between 2001 and 2019 during the time of the global war on terror,
2:11.6	my approximation is there's 115,000 veterans who have died by their own hands.
2:19.3	I also looked at the Department of Defense report that lists casualties.
2:24.3	This particular report lists the casualties from October of 2001,
	...

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