Almost half of military suicides came after seeking help

The larger number we should be aware of is the simple fact that 46 percent had sought help but still committed suicide. No matter how Richard McKeon wants to avoid that fact, it does show how what they have been proving in terms of "help" has not been working. With all the years they have been trying to prevent suicides and get these men and women to seek help, the numbers would have gone down instead of up. There are things they are doing right but if they make a mistake early on, what they do have right won't help. Resilient training is the biggest mistake of all. Telling them they can train their brains to prevent PTSD is telling them if they end up with PTSD their minds are weak. While this is not the message the military intended to deliver, it is the one the servicemen and women have heard. Once they think of PTSD this way, whatever they hear afterwards, they believe they're suffering because they didn't train their brains right and it is their fault.

The other thing they have wrong is that whatever help they have been providing has not lived up to the need. That is clear when we read that almost half of the men and women committing suicide had sought help before that point. How much more evidence do they need before they understand what they have been doing is just not good enough?

A third of military suicides told of plans to die

By DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press

"About 46 percent had been seen at a military treatment facility sometime in the 90 days before death. The treatment services include physical and behavioral health, substance abuse, family advocacy and chaplains."

DENVER (AP) - A third of military personnel who committed suicide last year had told at least one person they planned to take their own lives, a newly released Defense Department report says.

Nearly half went to see medical personnel, behavioral health specialists, chaplains or other service providers sometime in the 90 days before they died, according to the 2010 Department of Defense Suicide Event Report.

That doesn't necessarily reflect a failure in the Defense Department suicide prevention program, said Richard McKeon, chief of the Suicide Prevention Branch at the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"It's not that some person blew it," McKeon said Thursday. But physical and behavior health care personnel, counselors and other providers need to monitor their programs and look for improvements, he said.
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