Elevating Voices: What We Can Do to Prevent Veteran Suicide

Elevating Voices: What We Can Do to Prevent Veteran Suicide

What drives someone to seek a life without giving up on themselves, even in their darkest moments? This roundtable on the Strong Talk Podcast brings together three veteran advocates to talk frankly about why so many veterans die by suicide and what can actually help. Host Vic Armstrong sits down with Keith Hodel, CEO of Stop Soldier Suicide; Betsy Mercado, co-founder of Objective Zero Foundation; and retired Marine Corps Master Sergeant Dan Miller, now Communications Director for K9s for Veterans.

Between them, they blend data, tech, lived experience and raw honesty to talk about a crisis where, as Vic notes, an average of 17 veterans in the US die by suicide every day. Dan shares how combat wounds healed but his "emotionally, mentally, nothing healed" and how he nearly didn’t survive his own "rabbit hole".

His turning point came when he finally raised his hand for help and later spoke with a fellow veteran who went from saying "I'm done" to phoning back months later to say he was studying and still married. As Dan puts it, "There is always hope.

There is always a way forward." Keith explains how Stop Soldier Suicide’s Roger Wellness programme focuses on proactive, suicide-specific care, including careful safety planning and frank conversations about firearms, which he calls "central" given that around 70–75% of veteran suicides involve guns. He also outlines the Black Box Project, which analyses data from veterans’ devices to spot hidden patterns of risk.

Betsy walks through the Objective Zero app, where veterans can filter for peers with similar backgrounds – another Marine, another spouse – creating "a shortcut to trust". Many users simply use journaling and self-check tools as a quiet first step before talking to someone. If you or someone you care about has served, could one honest conversation, app download or safety plan be the small step that keeps a door to tomorrow open?