Veteran Suicides
from SpokesmanReview: Lives lost at home
A distraught 26-year-old Navy veteran who had a history of mental illness hanged himself within three hours of seeking help at Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The July 7 death of Lucas Senescall was the sixth suicide this year of a veteran who had contact with the Spokane VA, a marked increase in such deaths… Citing confidentiality rules, officials would not identify the recent fatalities.
But the identity of one other veteran who killed himself this year became public when his family wrote U.S. Sen. Patty Murray in April about concerns with VA mental health care. Spc. Timothy Juneman, 25, a National Guardsman and former Stryker Brigade soldier who was injured in a roadside explosion in Iraq, died March 5.
The same VA psychiatrist, Dr. William L. Brown, attended Senescall on the day he died and Juneman in early January when he was released from inpatient suicide watch at the Spokane VA. Brown had prescribed Juneman several medications, including potent antidepressant, anti-anxiety and antipsychotic drugs.
The Spokane VA is reviewing the death of Senescall, who hanged himself with an extension cord in his garage between 4 and 5 p.m. July 7 after leaving the hospital at 2:30 p.m. His father said the veteran remained depressed and agitated when left the facility.
Senescall’s brother Jacob and his roommate found his body in his garage that evening.
Police told Steve Senescall his son was dead by 5 p.m. About 150 people attended a memorial service July 13.
Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, adds,
…the problem could get worse, that the VA is unprepared to absorb 1.7 million returning Iraqi and Afghanistan war veterans if they need care. The health care system currently is treating 325,000 of them; of those, nearly 134,000 are being treated for mental health conditions.
