Anti-suicide program for Minnesota military running out of funds

Anti-suicide program for Minnesota military nears depletion
The Minnesota National Guard leads the country in the number of soldiers who have committed suicide, and a program that has been shown to successfully prevent suicides in the state's military now faces the prospect of running out of money by the end of the year.
By: Mark Brunswick, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) / MCT

MINNEAPOLIS

The Minnesota National Guard leads the country in the number of soldiers who have committed suicide, and a program that has been shown to successfully prevent suicides in the state's military now faces the prospect of running out of money by the end of the year.

With demand increasing, the program from Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota is burning through money at a rate of $50,000 to $70,000 a month, and a $500,000 appropriation from the Legislature is likely to be depleted by December or January. With funding capped and its contract not up until June, local services are likely to be stopped for anyone who doesn't have a way to pay for them, or they will be directed to a federal military call-in program answered by a phone bank from another state.

"We run a real risk of being victims of our own success," said Mary Beth Galey, senior director of counseling and adoption for Lutheran Social Service, the state's largest nonprofit social service organization. "To a great extent, we'll probably be stuck."
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