No suicide statistics for military family member suicides?

Are you listening?
By TERRI BARNES
Published: April 19, 2013

Army wife Karen Francis said she thought it was great that the Army devoted a whole duty day last year to suicide awareness. “Suicide Stand Down” was a service-wide mandatory training day conducted in September, the Army’s response to the alarming suicide rate among brothers and sisters in arms.

Francis couldn’t help wondering about Army spouses and children. Though family members were welcomed at the event, the program and timing — on a weekday — were not suited to them. She was concerned that suicide and its effects on military family members was not being addressed.

Francis said she can’t base that concern on statistics concerning suicides among family members. However, she said most military spouses know a story or two about a friend’s child who attempted suicide or a military spouse who tragically succeeded.

“I can’t even give you numbers, because no one counts us,” she said. “We do not have one solitary [suicide] statistic for spouses and other family members.”

Francis, a Family Resource Group leader at Fort Belvoir, Va., approached her command leadership about having a similar awareness day for families. They were supportive, she said, and encouraged her to take on the project. So she did.

“Are You Listening?” is the title of the suicide awareness symposium for military families Saturday at Fort Belvoir’s USO Warrior and Family Center, the product of several months of planning.
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