DOD may track family member suicides

At last, suicides among military family members could be tracked
CNN
By Ashley Fantz
February 6, 2014

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Defense Suicide Prevention Office sends a report to Congress
It details a proposal for tracking suicides among military family members
DOD could buy data from the CDC, combine it with information already kept, according to report
Military father who attempted suicide: Tracking "would validate that families are traumatized"

(CNN) -- When Scott Warner swallowed a palm full of pills and washed them down with vodka, all he could think about was the way his son looked back at him and smiled before boarding a plane to Iraq.

Heath Warner was 19, an Army private, when a bomb killed him in al Anbar Province on November 22, 2006.

"From the moment those men in uniforms were at our door, each day, the pain kept getting worse," recalled Scott Warner. "I was crawling up a wall. People out in the real world would tell me, 'Why aren't you over this? He's been gone for years. Why aren't you better by now?'

"All I wanted to do was end my life. I know I'm not alone. I've talked to other parents, other family members. We are hurting and someone must do something."

Though the military tracks suicides among service members, suicides among their family members -- spouses, siblings and parents -- go uncounted. But CNN learned Wednesday that the Pentagon's Defense Suicide Prevention Office has sent a report to Congress detailing for the first time a proposal for tracking those deaths.

The report came partly in response to cries for help from groups like the National Military Family Association, whose members know firsthand about the suicides and have struggled to call attention to the problem.
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