Suicide is a word people dance around.

There is fear that it is part contagion that can spread if given too much exposure. There can be an idea that talking about it can give people ideas. While it is tempting to dismiss these as urban legends, there is data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health to back it up — at least when it comes to children and adolescents and even young adults.

That is a group where a lot of attention is focused. According to the American Psychological Association, the rate of suicide among those aged 10 to 24 rose dramatically over an 18-year period. In 2000, it was 6.8 such deaths per 100,000. By 2018, it was 10.7 per 100,000. That’s steep and stark.

It is also not the highest risk group. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs put the rate for former service members taking their own lives at 31.7 per 100,000 — almost three times as that of youth and young adults. And that wasn’t the bad news. The rate had fallen 9.7% from a 2018 peak.

This is something the VA has known about for years. It’s something veterans organizations know all too well. In 2022, Navy veteran David Williams brought his painting “Green Horse” to the American Legion Post No. 980 in Plum, part of an ongoing effort to bring attention to the topic. It was a stop along the way to present the painting to members of Congress at the Lincoln Memorial.

“It’s an issue that needs to be addressed,” he told the Tribune-Review then.

It still does. Veterans need help coping with things they have seen, things they have done and things that have been done to them. They need help reintegrating into the lives they lived before their service and figuring how they can build new lives later. They need help with injuries, therapy, addiction and mental health.

But what do we do when even being in the building isn’t enough?

On Oct. 10, William G. Grant, 73, was pronounced dead at the H. John Heinz III VA Medical Center in O’Hara. The facility provides geriatric, rehabilitation, dementia and hospice care.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Grant’s death a suicide due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

VA spokeswoman Shelley Nulph offered little comment on the case “because of privacy concerns” but said officials “will review this loss of life to ensure the continued safety of our veteran patients, staff members and visitors.”

The VA should do more than review. It needs to correct.

Veterans are owed so much more attention and consideration, especially as they age. They need to be healed or treated, if possible. If not, they need to be comforted and kept safe — whether threatened by disease or demons. That cannot happen if they have weapons in a facility for the care of aged or ill former service members.

The veterans, families, employees and public deserve better than a form letter saying the situation will be reviewed. A man who wore his country’s uniform should not have found his end by his own bullet in a VA hospital.

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