West Point, 2 suicides, 2 attempts in just 2 months

West Point reacting to 2 suicides in as many months
Times Herald-Record - Middletown,NY,USA
By Alexa James
February 02, 2009
WEST POINT — As the Army reels from record-high suicide rates, officials at the U.S. Military Academy are responding to tragedies of their own.

Two West Point cadets killed themselves and at least two others made suicide “attempts or gestures,” in the past two months, prompting Academy officials to summon an Army surgeon general’s suicide team to campus last week.

The team’s investigation left West Point feeling confident that its mental health programs are robust and active, but Brig. Gen. Michael Linnington, the Commandant of Cadets, said there is still room for improvement.



“We have to remove all the stigma that’s attached with going to seek help,” he said.

Hundreds of suicide prevention posters and wallet-sized help cards were doled out across campus last month, and Army brass met with every class to remind them about the confidential mental health resources at their disposal.

West Point’s 4,400 cadets have access to counselors and doctors around the clock, Linnington said, both through an on-site office called the Center for Professional Development (CPD) and also a manned telephone help-line.

“The numbers of cadets that have gone to seek help at the CPD are triple what they were just five years ago,” he said. “Some people would say ‘Oh my God, that’s bad. That means cadets are stressed,’” but Linnington takes it as a good sign, saying the programs are popular because cadets aren’t ashamed to use them anymore.

More than 200 cadets sought help last year, including the two who committed suicide: A junior from Tennessee suffocated on helium gas in a hotel room in Highland Falls on Dec. 8, and a freshman shot and killed himself Jan. 2 while on leave in North Carolina. He was home to get mental help.
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