For veterans, changing the narrative on suicide starts with changing our idea of strength
Strength means many things in service: discipline, courage, loyalty, responsibility, and the ability to remain focused when circumstances are difficult and others are depending on you. These qualities are part of what enables Canadian Armed Forces members, and others who serve on the front line of our communities such as Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other first responders, to serve in situations most of us will never experience.
It is when we talk about suicide prevention among these veterans and their families that we must broaden the understanding of strength to include aspects such as recognizing when something is not right, telling someone you are struggling, and accepting support before things become unbearable. It can also mean recognizing that the qualities that helped someone endure one chapter of their life may not always be what they need to thrive in the next.
World Suicide Prevention Day is an opportunity to change the narrative around suicide. For veterans, part of that change means challenging the idea that resilience is measured by how much someone can carry on their own. It also means recognizing the important role of families supporting a loved one while ensuring they are not expected to carry that responsibility alone.
Members of these noble professions have learned to put the mission and the people around them first, to perform under pressure, and to continue functioning when circumstances are difficult. For many veterans, these qualities remain a source of pride and identity long after they remove the uniform. Those same qualities can sometimes make it harder to admit when support is needed.
We have made important progress in how we talk about mental health in Canada. Conversations that once happened quietly—if they happened at all—are now taking place much more openly. Within military and veteran communities, there has also been important work undertaken to reduce stigma, expand access to care, and create more opportunities for people to speak honestly about what they are experiencing.
However, the understanding of strength needs to happen beyond the individual, and include families, workplaces, communities, and the systems that surround them. Importantly, the Government of Canada is developing its first Men and Boys’ Health Strategy with a focus that includes reducing stigma, challenging harmful stereotypes, and encouraging men to seek help when needed. This has particular relevance for the veteran community, where men represent the large majority of those who have served, and where military culture can intersect with broader expectations around masculinity, toughness, and self-reliance.
The strategy also presents an opportunity to apply lessons from veteran and family communities to a broader challenge in suicide prevention: encouraging people to seek help is only effective when timely, appropriate support is available when they do. Prevention, therefore, requires attention not only to stigma and help-seeking, but also recognizing periods of heightened vulnerability, strengthening pathways to care, and ensuring that families and communities are equipped and supported as partners in prevention.
We know that in the military and first-responder community leaving service can involve changes in identity, routine, relationships, community, and sense of purpose. For many, that transition goes well. For others, it can coincide with injury, employment challenges, financial pressures, mental health concerns, or changes within the family. Since transition is a predictable period of significant change, it also represents an important opportunity for prevention. Strong transition systems can help connect people to appropriate supports earlier, maintain continuity of care, and recognize the well-being of families alongside that of the transitioning member.
Families are often among the first to notice changes, and that proximity can make them important partners in prevention—but it should never make them responsible for preventing suicide. Families need clear information about where support is available, opportunities to be appropriately included in care, and access to services that recognize their own mental health and well-being. Supporting a veteran and supporting their family should not be viewed as separate objectives. The well-being of one is often closely connected to the well-being of the other.
We should not expect veterans or their families to face their most difficult moments alone. A conversation with a friend, a call to a peer, an appointment with a health professional, or a family member noticing that something has changed may seem like small moments, but they can be incredibly important. Those moments are far more likely to happen when asking for help is understood as an act of strength rather than a departure from it.
On World Suicide Prevention Day, changing the narrative on suicide also means changing what we understand strength to be, and for veterans and for families, that renewed definition of strength should include knowing that you do not have to carry everything alone.
Fardous Hosseiny is president and CEO of the Atlas Institute for Veterans and Families.
The Hill Times