News Release

 
November 14, 2024

Editorial: Helping in the Fight Against Veteran Suicide
By Hon. Nathan Hecht

Each Veterans Day we take time to honor the men and women who have served in our nation’s armed forces, and rightfully so.

The men and women who volunteer to serve our country put their lives on the line to protect our freedom, and they do it knowing that they may pay the ultimate sacrifice in that service. It comes with the job. But there’s another price that no veteran should ever pay. It’s the tragic price paid by many veterans long after they’ve served: suicide.

The statistics on veteran suicides are sobering – and shocking. According to a VA study from 2021, for Texas veterans age 18-34, the suicide rate is 52.7 per 100,000 individuals.  That’s hard to visualize, but in real terms that means in your community of 100,000, almost 53 would commit suicide. Compare that to a rate of 19.6 for the Texas population at large. And it’s not just the younger veterans who are tragically dying by their own hands: 50 percent of Texas veteran suicides are veterans over 55, and 95 percent of veteran suicides are men.

Younger veterans are at particular risk because of the general higher risk of suicide among young men, but also for reasons particular to the veterans community. Recently separated servicemembers struggle with a return to civilian life and may have lost some of the coping mechanisms they had in the service. While 27 percent of veterans of all conflicts have reported a difficult time readjusting to civilian life, as many as 44 percent of modern veterans have said the same thing.

Certainly, proper diagnosis and treatment of depression, isolation, and PTSD is the most obvious way to beat these statistics. But there are others you might not think about. For example, too often we see that these common drivers of suicide are exacerbated by other stressors: things like legal trouble, divorce, housing, financial struggles, and bankruptcy.

We all know the stress of dealing with any number of legal issues, family law, housing rights, financial, or estate planning. Often for a veteran struggling with PTSD, these issues can be the straws that break the camel’s back.

The Texas Access to Justice Foundation, created by the Supreme Court of Texas, provides funding for civil legal aid in Texas, including free legal services to qualifying veterans.  Veterans often struggle because they don’t know when to ask for help. They’re used to being self-reliant and in control. But these issues can rob them of their independence and leave them feeling alone and abandoned.

But they’re not, and that’s where legal aid comes in. Legal aid can help with just these kinds of problems through free legal services for qualifying veterans. It might be assisting a veteran, who went through hard times and has moved forward, to expunge his record. Or it could be helping a veteran get back on his feet after a divorce, or helping a veteran struggling with a mortgage keep his home. It might be protecting veterans from consumer fraud. If you’re a veteran and can’t afford legal services, legal aid is here for you. Sometimes all a veteran needs is to know someone has his back. Because that’s all a veteran really wants: a fair fight. 

If you or a veteran you know is struggling and at risk for suicide, the first thing to do is get help, whether it’s medical help or counseling. But don’t forget about those other things: the straws that break the camel’s back. It’s never one thing that puts someone down the road to suicide, and it’s not just one thing that gets them off that road.

Each year, the week of Veterans Day is designated as Texas Veterans Legal Aid Week (TVLAW). This year from Nov. 11-15, local bar associations, legal aid organizations and law schools across Texas are hosting free, virtual legal clinics to serve Veterans with the support and civil legal guidance they need. To find a clinic in your area during TVLAW or throughout the year, visit texaslawhelp.org or call the statewide hotline at 1-800-622-2520, option 2.

You fought for us, now let us fight for you.


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The Texas Access to Justice Foundation, created by the Supreme Court of Texas in 1984, is the primary state-based funding source for the provision of civil legal aid in Texas. The organization is committed to the vision that all Texans will have equal access to justice, regardless of their income. The Foundation administers a variety of funding sources, which are earmarked to assist nonprofit organizations in providing legal aid to approximately 100,000 Texas families each year. For more information, please visit: www.teajf.org


 

Contact: Kimberly Schmitt
512-320-0099, ext. 104
kschmitt@teajf.org

 

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