Posted on Mar 30, 2014

Suicide prevention tools - are they effective?

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According to a recent news report, on average, 22 active duty service-members or veterans commit suicide daily. As leaders, we have various tools and resources available to us to combat this trend, such as the Army Suicide Prevention Program (ASPP), Army Substance Abuse Program (ASAP), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), Army Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness (CSF2), Army Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP), just to name a few. Does anyone feel these tools are particularly effective, or one more than the others? Please share any personal experiences or success stories you've had in helping avoid or reduce instances of suicide.

The first year I commissioned, I had one of my Soldiers attempt to commit suicide during one of our NTC rotations, and the experience has haunted me ever since. The difficulty for me in that particular instance was identifying those high-risk indicators ahead of time. Luckily, we caught him after the fact and we were able to get him immediate medical help and save his life.

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Suicide

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Edited 10 y ago

Posted 10 y ago

This is a duplicate discussion and the contents have been merged with the original discussion. Click below to see more on this topic...

Is enough being done to stop/prevent suicide with Servicemembers and Veterans?

Our suicide rates are at historical highs...more Soldiers/Vets have committed suicide in the last few years than all of our fallen brothers and sisters for both OEF and OIF. It's averaging 23 a day.

We have suicide prevention training, but it's only required in my unit once a year. We are taught from Day 0 that we are to have our battle buddy's back while deployed, but what about while in garrison? I don't mean to sound disrespectful or attacking anyone with this next part but...What happened to NCO's actually living by the NCO Creed? What happened to "My two basic responsibilities will always be uppermost in my mind, the accomplishment of my mission and the welfare of my Soldiers...I know my Soldiers and will always place their needs above my own"? I get that we're in the Army, that we're Soldiers first, and there are going to be times where we have to just embrace the suck and drive on. I don't think that applies though to making sure that Soldiers are doing ok.

This is a huge issue, and I don't believe that there is enough being done. At what point is this going to be a "big enough problem" for something more to be done?

Suicide prevention tools - are they effective?

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