Army producing another new suicide-prevention video

Army producing new suicide-prevention video
Jan 27, 2011

By Laura M. Levering (Northwest Guardian)

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (Jan. 27, 2011) -- A steady rise in the number of Soldiers who contemplate or commit suicide each year keeps the Army Suicide Prevention Program and behavioral health personnel striving for new ways to save lives.

The program's latest initiative, "Shoulder to Shoulder: Resiliency of the Army Family," is the third in a series of videos created for suicide awareness and prevention training at installations Armywide.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord was one of two installations selected for filming the 20-minute video.

A series of focus groups and interviews were conducted prior to filming "Shoulder to Shoulder," none of which was scripted. The video uses real people with real stories, in hopes of giving suicide a "face" viewers will identify with.

One focus group of leaders met in the "studio," a converted World War II barracks on Lewis North where the video was taped, to target ongoing Army initiatives and future direction of JBLM suicide prevention efforts.

The group included Walter Morales, program manager of DA Suicide Prevention and vice chief of staff, Health Promotion and Risk Reduction Task Force, Dr. Michelle Freedman, chief of Family and Child Services, Mark Brown, JBLM director of Human Resources, Sandi Vest of Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Proponency, Sam Smith, director of the Airman and Family Readiness Center, Patsy George, chief of Casualty Assistance and Robert Antry, chief of Military Personnel Division.

Morales said that coming to JBLM gave him a large pool of Soldiers to meet with from the thousands who have deployed and returned. He also said that while the majority of the video features Soldiers, his intent is to take feedback from the general population - to include family members and Department of the Army civilians - to produce training tools for suicide prevention.
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Army producing new suicide-prevention video