Suicide Prevention Fund has a surplus?

Suicide Prevention Fund has a surplus?

Sometimes I am at the point where when I read something like this first thing in the morning, I want to shut down the computer and watch the cartoon network to put me in a better mood.

I know I can't do that because of reports like this.

Military has Suicide Prevention Fund Surplus
Shaun Knittel
Online News Editor
20 September 2012


Congressman Jim McDermott (WA-7) and Congressman Leonard Boswell (IA-3) urged leaders of the U.S. House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee this week, to work with them in getting the Pentagon to use all of its unspent suicide prevention funds to reach more service members as soon as possible, and to go even further with higher funding next year.

In July, the McDermott-Boswell amendment that would increase critical funding for suicide prevention for active duty military by $10 million passed with strong support in the House Defense Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2013.

“The Pentagon hasn’t spent the money that it has for suicide prevention for this year – and that money wasn’t nearly enough money to reach all the soldiers who need help. Now we are hearing about bureaucratic technicalities at the Pentagon that are preventing them from acting. This is unconscionable,” said Congressman McDermott. “The Pentagon is funded to help soldiers and needs to do much more on the epidemic of suicides. As we commemorate National Suicide Prevention Week, we are calling on the Pentagon to move much faster.”

Congressman Boswell added, “We lose a soldier to suicide every day, a record pace that is driving the number of military suicides to all-time highs. As I said on the House floor in July, this is a national epidemic that requires immediate Congressional action to provide the necessary resources to prevent these tragedies from happening. With this year’s defense appropriations legislation at a standstill, and only days remaining in the legislative calendar, we urge leaders to act on freeing up the existing funds for soldier suicide prevention and outreach.”
read more here

This is the comment I left.

Wounded Times · Editor, Publisher and Videographer at Wounded Times Blog

If they really want to do something, the first thing they need to do is stop funding programs that have not worked. I track all of this across the country and can tell you, in 5 years, it has been one failure after another. The troops are not hearing what they need to know to fight PTSD and the families don't know what they can to to help them heal. Outreach is great but if the person doing it is not trained to do it, then it is worse than useless. I'm more upset about what has been done than money left over.

If they really wanted to prevent most of the suicides then they need to repeat what has worked and end what has not.

Resiliency Training is the biggest culprit of all. When you tell a young soldier/Marine/Airman/Sailor, they can train their brains to be mentally tough, that translates into telling them they are mentally weak and PTSD is their fault for not training right. Don't believe me? Ask them. I've held enough Marines in my arms as they cry and apologize for not training right. There are some parts of this program that are good but by the time they do get to hear what they should, they have turned of their ears.

They need to know exactly what PTSD is, understand why they ended up being attacked by it, be able to talk to their peers as soon as they need to, have medical care that includes a hell of a lot more than just medication, have support of leaders and above all, be able to return to family members with as much knowledge as they need to help them heal.

Their minds need help just as much as their bodies but the key is spiritual healing or nothing else will work as well as it should.

The poll up on the sidebar of this blog asks if Congress should be held accountable or not. So far, most feel they should be. It will be up until Veterans Day for that reason alone! Army focus on military suicides or more of the same