Hood sees twofold increase in suicides from prior year

Hood sees twofold increase in suicides from prior year

Did it do any good to have predicted this would happen well over a year ago?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worse


As the news reports kept coming out today about the carnage at Fort Hood, my greatest fears were not for today, but for the next few months ahead. No one is talking about "secondary stressors" and this needs to be addressed quickly.

There are crisis teams heading there according to the press briefing by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone. This is one of the best things they can do. I spent months taking this kind of training and it is very thorough. The issue that we need to be concerned about is when there are thousands of soldiers, combat soldiers with multiple tours, many of them are dealing with mild PTSD. Mild PTSD is not that hard to cope with. They live pretty normal lives while covering up the pain they have inside. Many even cope well the rest of their lives but many do not. Like a ticking time bomb, PTSD rests waiting to strike if untreated. It waits for the next traumatic event and then mild PTSD turns into PTSD on steroids.

These are the soldiers that will need the greatest help as soon as possible.

These bases are very well secured. That makes the soldiers and their families feel safe. Think about going into combat and then making it home alive where you are supposed to be safe. Then having this happen.

I was at Fort Hood in March. I had an auto rental and even though I had a military issued ID, that was not good enough at the guard house. I had to show my rental agreement every time I drove onto the base. Even if you have a Department of Defense sticker on your car, you still have to show your military ID. That makes them feel they are safe. Then away from harm, away from combat, they end up having to face something like this from not only one of their own, but a Major and a Doctor who is supposed to be there for them, trying to kill them.

Crisis teams will address the traumatic events of today, but the soldiers that have already been involved in traumatic events cutting into them will need far greater help than anyone is really prepared to deliver. This is my greatest fear for them.

Then we have troops from Fort Hood and other bases deployed into Iraq and Afghanistan wondering who they can trust now after one of their own did something like this. None of this is good and the aftermath may be worse than this day itself.
Aftermath of Fort Hood shootings may be worse

There was not enough being done to address it before the shootings and there wasn't enough done after. I know trauma, human nature and what can follow, but if anyone in charge knew the same thing but did nothing, they should face a trail to answer for what they did not do.

They boosted staff but say nothing about the kind of training or understanding these people had. If they were anything like Hassan, they would do more harm than good. Maybe Col. Christopher Philbrick should have asked some of us what we think is not being done and then maybe, just maybe they'd finally save some lives.

Army: 22 suicides in 2010 at Fort Hood

One was Army Sgt. Douglas Hale Jr., who had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after completing his second tour in 2007. He texted his mother, Glenda Moss, on July 6 asking forgiveness before shooting himself to death in a restaurant bathroom near Fort Hood.

During the last week of September, four soldiers committed suicide.
Despite suicide prevention efforts, Hood sees twofold increase in suicides from prior year; some say shooting massacre may have been contributing factor
By Gregg Zoroya - USA Today
Posted : Wednesday Jan 5, 2011 21:57:41 EST
The Army’s largest post saw a record number of soldiers kill themselves in 2010 despite a mental health effort aimed at reversing the trend.

The Army says 22 soldiers have either killed themselves or are suspected of doing so last year at Fort Hood, Texas, twice the number from 2009.

That is a rate of 45 deaths per 100,000, compared to 20-per-100,000 rate among civilians in the same age group and a 22-per-100,000 rate Army-wide.

The Army had boosted staffing and psychiatric services to address the problem, particularly after the fatal shootings of 13 people on the post in November 2009. The Army says that Maj. Nidal Hasan, a psychiatrist, fired his pistol indiscriminately at soldiers waiting for routine medical care.

Fort Hood now has one of the largest counseling staffs in the Army with more than 170 behavioral health workers.

“Any time they’ve asked for it, the Army has done everything it can to provide assistance,” said Army Col. Christopher Philbrick, deputy commander of an Army task force on reducing suicides.

Philbrick said it “has been very frustrating for us to figure out what we haven’t done right.”

Many of the 48,000 soldiers at Fort Hood have either returned from war zones or are on their way to them.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/01/gannett-army-hood-sees-22-suicides-010511/