Yes. I deal almost exclusively with post-traumatic stress disorder, and about 49% of people with PTSD think about suicide; 19% actually act on it.
I've been very fortunate. I think it's partly the therapeutic relationship and the bond I have as a fellow veteran. In all my years—in June I'll have been a doctor for 41 years—I've never lost a patient to suicide, but the example I gave you would have been my first, and I didn't know about it. That's telling me that not only are they getting worn down, but they're now starting to not reach out, because had he reached out, I could have done something about that.
It's a really dire scenario. We're not tracking the suicides when our veterans leave the military. To be honest, every one of my veterans—and I mean every one—develops anxiety when they get a letter or an email from VAC, because the vast majority have had negative interactions.
There's a reason why there's bulletproof glass in the VAC offices now, and that shouldn't be there; it should be a supportive environment.