The focus is on why so many servicemen and women find it nearly impossible to adjust to civilian life after their military stint expires. This is a global problem as media reports show. In Australia, as elsewhere, many choose to commit suicide rather than attempt it. Some also have brain damage from explosives and things they may have witnessed or been a part of, and that’s something they can’t escape.

In recent months, the untimely deaths of many in other areas such as police, ambulance drivers, paramedics and the medical profession have also drawn attention. Why would young doctors who have everything ahead of them end up dead by their own hands? Some have attributed this to the stress and hours that young trainees have to work. Others report on the traumatic events and death they see in the course of the day or night.

The trauma that many of these people have to deal with in the course of their work is horrendous. A paramedic recently said they called him in for an accident and found the dead driver of one of the vehicles to be his son. Other paramedics are called in to retrieve bodies that have been severely damaged by accidents, burns, gunshots, and more recently, decapitations.

The police are dealing with the same stress after being called as lifeguards in many horrendous scenes. In some cases, they face death when enraged lunatics threaten them with guns. Some don’t survive by letting their colleagues deal with the aftermath.

Many years ago, when I was a medical student, there was an incident where, late at night, in the library, the smell of formaldehyde from the dissection room downstairs was quite strong. It was a hot night and the windows were open. On the way home while driving my car there were images before my eyes of dead bodies. It was quite scary and the trip turned into a nightmare.

It is possible, therefore, to understand how and why those who see death and trauma every day become depressed. They are dealing with grief on a level most of us cannot imagine and it affects them. Some of the bodies are of young children who have been brutalized or killed.

In a recent case in Queensland, a man dragged a two-year-old boy into the bathroom and turned on the hot water tap. He then hit the young man in the face and broke his arms. The boy’s skin was peeling off 40% of his body when the ambulance paramedics arrived. Who can think of what that child went through during his long months of recovery? The police have to deal with the perpetrators who finally received 12 years in prison. The boy has a lifetime of scars.

When summed up, it’s no wonder so many who serve the community take their own lives. There are some things that one cannot overcome and when they are multiplied many times over, the problem of moving on becomes more and more difficult.