Navy suicide rate soars to record high in first three months of 2024

The Navy reported a record number of suicides in the first three months of 2024 amid earlier reports of poor quality of life and high stress for service members, according to new Pentagon data.

There were 24 suicides reported among sailors in the first quarter of 2024, the highest quarterly total the service has seen since 2018, which was the first year such data was made available. seconds at the Pentagon A wellness service poll conducted in February by the Navy found that more than a third of sailors suffered from “severe or extreme levels of stress” in 2023, compared with about a quarter who reported it in 2019.

The number of reported suicides dropped in the Navy in 2020 and 2021 as the service tried to make progress on the issue during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, including offering free awareness and prevention of suicide course along with your other free mental health resources. There were a total of 73 reported suicides in 2019, but the number dropped to 65 in 2020 and 59 in 2021.

However, the Navy saw an increase in the number of suicides in 2022, with 71 deaths, according to the Pentagon. There were 69 reported suicides in 2023.

The Pentagon's Office of Inspector General, the department's watchdog agency, opened a research in February to determine whether the Navy “effectively took actions to prevent and respond to incidents of death by suicide, attempted suicide, and suicidal ideation among Navy members assigned to sea or shore duty.” A Navy spokesman earlier he said Military.com that it was “aware” of the investigation and would remain “to support the assessment.”

The Navy's February “Health of the Force” survey found that overall stress levels among sailors were higher than in 2019, the first year the survey was conducted. Junior enlisted seamen, who are paid less that their senior counterparts were the most affected, with 40% reporting feeling “severe or extreme stress”, up from 29% in 2019.

The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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