Technology @lemmy.world Dot. @feddit.org 1mo ago

Bill Would Force The Department of Veterans Affairs to Overhaul Suicide Prevention Algorithm That Favors White Men.

themarkup.org Bill Would Force V.A. to Overhaul Suicide Prevention Algorithm That Favors White Men – The Markup

The legislation would require the agency to incorporate factors linked to elevated suicide risk among women veterans into its AI program

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I was trying to figure out why they're making such a big deal about adding it since men veteran suicides still massively outpace women veteran suicides and I stumbled on this note:

• From 2020 to 2021, the age-adjusted suicide rate increased 6.3% among Veteran men and 24.1% among Veteran women. From 2020 to 2021, the age-adjusted suicide rate increased 4.9% among non-Veteran men and 2.6% among non-Veteran women.

• In 2021, the age-adjusted suicide rate of Veteran men was 43.4% greater than that of non-Veteran U.S. adult men, and the age-adjusted suicide rate of Veteran women was 166.1% higher than that of non-Veteran U.S. adult women.

It seems its less about the total and way more about the spike. While men veterans still kill themselves more often, that's still in-line with what has been happening for decades now and not increasing at a rate inconsistent with non-veteran suicide, while the women veteran suicides are a massive spike of suicides in a short time frame, compared to non-veteran women suicides which only grew a fraction comparatively.

So, initially confusing, but looking closer, super important to take into account, actually.
- Thanks for finding the actual statistics. My initial feeling was that there are too many ways to interpret what the article was saying, and playing silly buggers with the statistics.
- That is very interesting to me. It is an insane spike for women. Getting a better understanding of this might led to better understanding in general.
- Seems like more women in combat roles correlates to higher rates.
Headline leaning into the culture wars a bit there, isn't it?

I'd fully expect a program like this to favour white men given they make up the majority of the armed forces. It's called maths. Or "math" I guess, in America.
- It shouldn't favour anyone. It should treat each person as an individual and figure out what they need based on their characteristics. If it's been designed to only work well for white men it's been designed poorly.
- If the algorithm is more likely to help a white servicemember than a black one, that would be a problem, no?
  
  It would be, but is that what's happening?
  
  The article seemed to mention men and women, but nothing to do with race apart from the headline.
- They also make up the majority of people commiting suicide. Not sure about 'white' but men that is.
- It's such a harmful aspect of American culture not just in this case - they treat White and Black people as fundamentally different and separate, and each must have it's own kind of healthcare.
I mean I guess algorithms are technology, but this really seems like it should be a submission in a US politics community.

At the very least include the US in the title so we know which government's policy is being criticised.
- While I agree that many are too eager to put anything even tangentially related to tech in this community, this belongs. This is a piece of technology that is wildly relevant to this community and to a politics community. Sometimes they are inextricable. More and more these days whether we like it or not.
  
  Is a debate about how the US government handles mental health problems amongst veterans really "wildly relevant" to the Technology community on Lemmy?
  
  Idk, to me it seems like they're not actually that related at all, beyond them using a database to attempt to figure out who's more at risk.
Who is this Bill guy? We gotta stop him

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