Army focus on military suicides or more of the same

Army Focuses on Reducing Suicides
TIME Battleland
By MARK THOMPSON
September 7, 2012

We’ve just begun the Army’s Suicide Prevention Month – next week marks National Suicide Prevention Week – and the service is cranking up its suicide-prevention efforts:

The Army will expand its observance with events occurring during the entire month of September, focusing efforts on total Army family well-being, resilience, stigma reduction, and positive results achieved by getting involved and reaching out for help. …the service says.

Last month, the Army announced that there were 38 suspected suicides in its ranks, an all-time record, and roughly 50% higher than recent months’ toll.

Next Monday, September 10, Army Secretary John McHugh will join with the nation’s leading suicide fighters to release the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. Nothing suicide-related is slated for the next day – 9/11 – but the Army will hold a health fair in the Pentagon courtyard dedicated to reducing suicides September 12 and 13.

Then there’s the Pentagon’s suicide prevention webpage. If that’s not sufficient, the Army has set up its own.
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This is from October 2008

Army creates suicide prevention board
Story Highlights
Army will examine mental health of recruiters
Recruiters under pressure from job and victims of post-combat deployment
Texas sees four suicides in three years
From Mike Mount
CNN Pentagon Producer


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Army is establishing a suicide prevention board to examine the mental health of its recruiters around the country after the fourth suicide in three years by Houston, Texas-based recruiters, according to Army officials.

The board will look at how to handle the high-stress climate facing recruiters who may be both under pressure from their job and victims of post-combat deployment stress, according to Douglas Smith, a spokesman from the U.S. Army Recruiting command.

"The United States Army Recruiting Command is deeply concerned by the instances of suicide within the Houston Recruiting Battalion," said a statement released by the Recruiting Command. "The board's objective will be to prevent future suicides, increase suicide awareness, analyze trends and highlight additional tools and resources to combat suicide within the Recruiting Command."
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and in the same month there was this

October 30, 2008

Suicide in the military is an "emerging mental health crisis."
Army suicide: Preventable deaths
Florida Times-Union - Jacksonville,FL,USA
Army suicide: Preventable deaths

By The Times-Union
Suicide in the military is an "emerging mental health crisis."
The numbers bear that out, as reported by The Associated Press.

Thousands deployed: Over 1.6 million troops have been deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Persian Gulf since Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly 550,000 of these troops have been deployed more than once.

Mental issues: About 300,000 who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have anxiety or post-traumatic stress, reported a Rand study released in April.

The Army surgeon general reports a 46 percent increase last year in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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If they are not prepared to do things differently now, expect the same deplorable results.