If Resiliency Training worked, then why are they still committing suicide?

UPDATE June 11, 2012
I ran across something that was written about what I said way back in 2009. I am no longer with the IFOC but you'll get the point. I am with Point Man Ministries now so while my "hat" has changed, what's under it is still the same.

The Burden of PTSD: An Ongoing Conversation
April 6, 2009
MATTHEW NEWTON
Writer + Reporter

Perhaps you've heard: PTSD among veterans returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is a huge problem and we might not have the resources to deal with its ramifications. GOOD recently ran my feature on the subject, "The Memory War," and since then, I've had many conversations on the topic-ranging from readers' personal experiences, to sprawling discussions on the multifacted challenges facing service members suffering from PTSD. One such discussion, however, really forced me to take a step back.

In an email exchange with Kathie Costos DiCesare, a Senior IFOC Chaplain, she expresses a view of the Army's Battlemind training program that I'd never heard, or even considered. For the unfamiliar, Battlemind is a training program used to try to counter the effects of war on armed forces. It's been heavily criticized as inadequate. DiCesare takes that criticism one step further.

"Battlemind and Warrior Mind both have the same problem and-it's my belief-have the most to do with the rise in suicides as well as attempted suicides," she writes. Both programs, she says, tell troops they can prepare their minds for war, implying that if they are somehow wounded by PTSD, it's their fault.
read more here

When I posted how psychiatrists are coming out against Resiliency Training it seemed too little too late but I was relieved to finally read it from a source other than my blog.

Every time I talk to someone, trying to get them to understand how much damage is done with this program, they look at me as if I'm insane. After all, most of the press on this has been positive because reporters are too lazy to look up the facts. None of them stopped to ask anyone from the DOD or Congress one simple question. If Resiliency Training, also know as Battlemind, was working, then why have the suicides and attempted suicides gone up instead of down?

It is not as if this failure was not known for a very long time. I took a look back at this blog and my older one to remind me of how long I've been talking about this.

Here's an example from 2007

DOD spreading mental illness one GI at a time
June 6, 2007
When you take a look at the "BattleMind" training the troops go through, it is not a far fetch to see how manipulating their thinking process can cause great harm. The first time I read about this program, I winced. Looks like I was right in finding this type of training very troubling.

Here's an example from 2009

Study finds ‘Battlemind’ is beneficial?

Sorry but I just choked on my coffee.

February 16, 2009
Col. Carl Castro should have known better when he developed this program. From what is said about this program and the evidence, this program does more harm than good. Not that any of these people would ever listen to me or the veterans or the BBC investigation that showed the troops arriving in Afghanistan with 11 1/2 minutes of BattleMind training crammed into two straight days of briefings. There are parts of this program that are good and should be used but they begin with telling the troops that they can "toughen" their minds, which translates to them that if they end up with PTSD, it's their fault because they didn't get their brain tough enough. Try telling that to a Marine.

They can say whatever they want, but when you see the suicide rate go up every year, see them still not wanting to seek help, still not being treated for this as if they have nothing to be ashamed of, then there is a problem. You cannot begin by telling them they can train their brain and then tell them it's ok if they failed to do it. While they may be able to prepare for combat what they cannot do is change the fact they are human, exposed to abnormal events in combat situations and have normal reactions of stress after as a normal human! No matter what the cause, people get wounded by PTSD. The difference between civilians and the troops is that the troops are exposed to it over and over and over again when they deploy into combat. Telling them they just didn't do a good enough job to toughen their minds is the wrong way to begin what could have been a really great program. Again it's just my opinion and based on 26 years of all of this. Plus add in the fact that the Montana National Guard had to come up with their own program along with a lot of other units. That should have been an alarm bell right there, but no one heard it that is in charge.

It would be wonderful if reporters on cable news would finally take a look at this instead of only doing political reports!