Florida National Guard extends suicide intervention training into the community

"The Army officially adopted ASIST as its suicide intervention training program in 2009." and we see how well this has worked by the number of military suicides going up along with attempted suicides. Fort Bliss claims this is what is responsible for their base having the lowest suicide rate but if this is Army wide, then that negates this claim.

Florida National Guard extends suicide intervention training into the community
Written by Sgt. 1st Class Blair Heusdens
September 4, 2012

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.
September 1, 2012

It’s a situation no one wants to be in. What do you do when a friend, family member, co-worker or a complete stranger tells you they’re thinking about committing suicide? Participants in a recent Florida National Guard workshop learned that there’s a method out there that provides the tools to prevent the immediate risk of suicide.

Not all of the participants were military members. For the first time, the Florida National Guard incorporated civilian first responders into the training as a way to engage the local community in suicide awareness and share experiences and lessons learned.

“The first responders have added to the perspective with their training and helped us think beyond some of the situations we encounter typically within the military,” said Michael McFarland, the Florida National Guard Director of Psychological Health.

The Florida National Guard began training Soldiers on the Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) method in 2010 as a way to improve Soldiers’ ability to intervene successfully in potential suicide situations. The ASIST method is a civilian program developed as a two-day workshop to make people feel more comfortable, confident and competent when dealing with suicide. The Army officially adopted ASIST as its suicide intervention training program in 2009.
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This is from Alex Jones Channel. I don't care what political views this channel normally has but this video is totally correct and the stories in this video have been posted on this blog, taken from the same news sources listed.


I left a comment saying this video is correct but misses the fact that "suspected" suicides never seem to be added in later, plus the fact if they are discharged, no one is counting them.