What are some ways that we can reduce veteran suicides?

2020-03-09T19:44:02-04:00

I have been my units Suicide Intervention Officer (SIO) for 4 years now, and I am constantly asking myself this question. What are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? How do we prevent the mental health conditions that lead to it in the first place? What do we do if we have a soldier in our ranks who is having these thoughts? Where does responsibility fall within a chain of command?

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 9 at 2020 7:57 PM

2020-03-09T19:57:02-04:00

Great questions. We need to de-stigmatize mental health concerns. We never question a soldier who is physically injured or wounded. We can understand that. However, a soldier who seeks help for his/ her mental health is considered, unfortunately, weak and not tough enough to handle some of those mental health concerns. That needs to change.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 9 at 2020 8:02 PM

2020-03-09T20:02:04-04:00

For starters, I think one thing we're doing right is breaking that stigma around mental health among the services. It took me getting ready to transition out of AD before I started to seek BH help.

Leaders at all levels must ensure they not only make it clear to their soldiers that there's nothing wrong with getting BH/MH help and provide better awareness training other than just watching those power points and videos. Do practical scenario type training and invite BH specialists to join training, when possible.

As far as what we're doing wrong. I think leaders, especially TLs through company CDRs, need to convey that they actually care when speaking on the topic with soldiers. The sentence "if you guys have any problems, or just need to talk to me offline, I'm available" can be taken vastly differently depending on the tone and attitude the leader saying this expresses.

I don't think we'll ever fully prevent this from occuring in the military, but by actually fostering that healthy work environment where yes, there's a CoC, but it feels like family will go along ways in helping SMs open up and get the help they need.

Response by SSG Matthew Underhill made Mar 9 at 2020 8:05 PM

2020-03-09T20:05:38-04:00

The initial responsibility for the soldier would fall to whomever they would first disclose thier intentions to. Get them to the ER and keep the CoC informed as the situation develops. Being in the military is one of the most stressful job in the U.S. That being said just because a SM is having these types of issues doesn't mean that at the end of the day it is necessarily anyones "fault".

As the SIO you can make reccomendations to the commander that may help improve the moral of the soldiers in your unit. Creative and fun "team building" events can be benificial and foster a closer sense of belonging in the unit and improve camaraderie between soldiers. The closer everyone is to each other the more likely they are to notice when something isn't right with someone. Just dont do mandatory fun time type crap. Get Creative. For example find an escape room and have a competition to see which PLT can complete it the fastest then go out to lunch together as a company. You are in a position to positively effect your unit. Take that chance and do the best you can with it.

Response by Lt Col Charlie Brown made Mar 10 at 2020 6:10 AM

2020-03-10T06:10:48-04:00

You need a core group of people trained in First Aid mental health who will be released to take a soldier to the hospital and stay with him or her until they are admitted or released. The names of those people should be posted in the unit along with their contact info and the words available 24/7

Response by CWO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 10 at 2020 9:16 AM

2020-03-10T09:16:57-04:00

Earn trust first, then overcome stigma against a person to ask for help. Then listen. Listening to and trusting others may be what got them here in their mind, so they might not be receptive at first.

Response by COL Mikel J. Burroughs made Mar 10 at 2020 9:32 AM

2020-03-10T09:32:32-04:00

SGT Private RallyPoint Member First, and foremost take every comment seriously and make sure everyone in the command or unit knows who to contact if a soldier is showing signs or talking about suicide (ACE); if they are transitioning out of he military make sure they go to the VA immediately to sign up for benefits even if they don't have a disability or potential claim. Third, get them engaged with weekly programs like "Warriors for Life (WFL) Virtual Group Support that meets every week (peer-to-peer) support with those that have been through what there going through now and can egage them in remedies to help and support without the stigma, judgment, or thought of losing deployability if still serving. Here's a link to find out more about WFL (I'm the founder and Saturday evening facilitator) and I've been doing this for over 4 years now with veterans from all over the country and some out of country. They can also get in touch with me through RP as well and I can get them on the private Facebook Page for WFL or we can email and discuss.

Check it out:

https://www.victoryforveterans.org/contact

Contact | Warriors For Life

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Mar 10 at 2020 7:07 PM

2020-03-10T19:07:43-04:00

- Need good mental screening.
- Need compassionate and supportive unit leadership.
- Need to send them to the WTU if there is one on post.
- Need to send them inpatient if available.
- Need a treatment plan.
- Need to find out how the SM and family are doing.
- Need to give them reasons to live instead of reasons to die.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Mar 10 at 2020 7:21 PM

2020-03-10T19:21:42-04:00

- Need good mental health screening.
- Need to send them to the WTU if there is one.
- Need a compassionate and supportive unit leadership.
- Need inpatient in some cases.
- Need to know how the SM and family are doing.
- Need a treatment plan.
- Need to replace reasons to die with reasons to live.
- Need a good POC if the shit hits the fan.
- Need to make sure they go to their appointments.

I wrote a paper on PTSD if you are interested to learn more. It is called Love Squared.

https://www.wellnesswishes.org/post/love-squared-a-journey-of-healing-from-ptsd

"Love Squared": A Journey of Healing from PTSD

Last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Major (Retired) Ken Landgren who graciously offered for me to read a paper he put together on his experience with PTSD and healing. I read through the paper twice, often fighting tears, and was so moved, I excitedly jumped on his offer to make this paper available for

Response by PO1 M. Chandler made Mar 11 at 2020 11:34 PM

2020-03-11T23:34:13-04:00

It's a big challenge, tough question. Yes we need to destigmatize, and de sloganize our approach. The old resilience training I experienced in 2012-14 timeframe in the Army version was problematic. It was designed by cooks for middle school aged children. The at adoption of the approach was not well implemented. In my experience anyway. You might need to go find some good tools on your own, with perhaps the chaplains help. One way to break the stigma is for senior leaders, E and O to be honest about their own challenges and experience. We have had 4 stars (CNO Borda 1997) suicide.
To prevent the suicide level depression, I recommend managing expectations. Our ethic as warriors prepares us somewhat for dissapointments. Our upbringing does not; were told to be good, reap rewards, God loves you, Hollywood and Disney say the hero always comes out on top. Anything less than complete success is easily internalized into destructive self talk and dissapointments. Expectations are inversely proportionate to serenity. Serene ppl do not suicide. Seek serenity, temper expectations, communicate as a
Leader the value of your own struggling and failures.

Response by MAJ Elmer Tribble made Jun 1 at 2023 1:16 AM

2023-06-01T01:16:47-04:00

Early detection. We as soldiers to not want to go to the doctor almost for anything. If bad enough it can get you put out and often we think it makes us look weak. It is ok to talk to counselor. This generation of soldiers have seen several tours of madness and loosing friends. Our minds are not made to take several trauma experiences. It usually start with the signs of alcohol and drug abuse in trying to hide their issues. But must be started early in coming home each time returning home.