A Matter of Life and Death: Suicides in the Army

I have long believed that Chaplains are the best treatment for not only heading off PTSD, but helping to heal it after it has taken hold as well.

Troubled veterans of combat don't want to talk to just anybody. They want to talk to someone they know they can trust, someone they know will not judge them or feel repulsed by what they have to say. They need to know opening up will not harm their career. These, obvious reasons are only part of it. When you consider PTSD is a wound to the emotional part of the brain striking after traumatic events, it is really hitting the soul of the man/woman. When they begin to heal spiritually, every other treatment works better because of it.

The following article points out how important chaplains are for the men and women serving. This should also offer more evidence that the clergy in the civilian world need to become more involved in helping them heal when they come home.

March 26, 2010, 11:19 am
A Matter of Life and Death: Suicides in the Army
By TIMOTHY HSIA
The Army faces a battle over the life and death of its soldiers. The battle is not being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in the minds and tortured souls of soldiers contemplating suicide. Last year the Army again reported an increase in suicides, and in response the Army now requires every soldier to complete an online assessment of their physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

The Army’s suicide problem is worse than the official numbers presented because the suicide statistics that are tabulated do not include the family members of soldiers. When I attended suicide prevention training sponsored by the Army, several chaplains who were leading the class told the participants that beyond just counseling service members they also had assisted in helping soldiers cope with a family member’s suicide. The official numbers also do not include veterans who have left the military.

While suicides are most pronounced in the Army, the other branches of the military also face this problem, which extends beyond just soldiers returning from combat and even to the service academies. Moreover, the pain and emotional strain of deployment and suicides is not simply limited to soldiers in the junior ranks. Even generals, like Gen. Carter Ham, commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, has encouraged soldiers to seek help for their mental wounds.

The Army’s response to the uptick in suicides has been swift and pronounced. Beyond just having soldiers fill out individual risk assessments, soldiers are also required to role-play scenes in an interactive DVD video that mirrors the emotional issues that may be encountered. Perhaps more important, within the Army there has been a substantial shift in the army’s organizational ethos concerning how leaders view mental strain. Going to talk to a chaplain or mental health professional is no longer looked down upon. Leaders have also emphasized that official policy does not automatically prevent one from gaining security clearance if they see a psychiatrist.

When my unit returned from Iraq the first time, there was no emphasis on the soldier’s mental health. The one solace that soldiers seek out, then and now, are military chaplains. Were it not for the listening and compassionate ear of my unit’s chaplains, my unit’s morale would have plummeted while deployed. While many civilians probably presume that there are numerous military health professionals — particularly in light of the notoriety of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and the Fort Hood Army Base shootings in Texas — in actuality there are very few psychiatrists at the unit level.
read more here
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/a-matter-of-life-and-death-suicides-in-the-army/