Only way to reduce suicides tied to military is fix stupid solutions

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 14, 2014

There is only one way to reduce military/veteran suicides but in order to do it, they'd first have to fix what are stupid solutions.

Spc. Jacob Sexton committed suicide in 2009. His Dad went on a crusade to prevent other families from going through the same thing. Indiana WBNS 10 News reported that Jeff Sexton went to the State of the Union Address in 2014, invited by Senator Joe Donnelly.

In this video you'll hear about a Dad saying his son committed suicide in 2009. He talked about how his son Chance Kingsley had reported PTSD but was still sent back. He mentioned that if what was in the Sexton suicide prevention bill were in place back then, his son would still be alive. The trouble with this is, he was wrong.

There were many bills, rules and regulations in place pushed by parents with the same goal of sparing other families from burying their members due to suicide. A great example is the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act signed by President Bush in 2008. This was supposed to save lives too.

More bills followed and pushed for mental health screenings, pre and post deployment but the leaders of the military said they do not do post deployment screenings during a Senate Armed Forces Committee meeting in 2010. They excused themselves saying they didn't have the manpower or the time to do them.

While most are talking about the Clay Hunt Suicide act being held up, they pretty much ignored this one and all the others that sound good in a news report and a speech but will do little to actually save any lives.

The Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act Explained -- Washington, D.C. 6-22-13
Chicago Medical Innovations
Jun 27, 2013

Marta McLellan Ross, Military Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN), explains The Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act at "Visible Honor for Invisible Wounds" to commemorate National PTSD Awareness Day in Washington, D.C. on June 22, 2013.

The event was co-sponsored by Chicago Medical Innovations. Join Chicago Medical Innovations (http://www.chicagomedicalinnovations....) in the fight against Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and help spread the word about PTSD.

Chicago Medical Innovations is a Non-Profit 501(c)3 Organization that facilitates access to innovative treatment options for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans, sexual assault victims and others who have faced traumatic experiences and have been unable to achieve adequate relief from PTSD symptoms through existing evidence-based treatments.

Indiana National Guardsman committed suicide at movie theater
Spc. Jacob Sexton died because of war and because the military didn't make sure they were prepared to return home.

Guardsman home from war kills self in Ind. theater
Associated Press
7:12 p.m. CDT, October 13, 2009

MUNCIE, Ind. - The father of an Indiana National Guardsman who fatally shot himself inside a movie theater said Tuesday that the families of servicemembers returning home from war need to closely watch them for signs of stress.

Spc. Jacob Sexton, 21, showed no signs of being suicidal before shooting himself in the head, the guardsman's father, Jeffrey Sexton of Farmland, said.

"We just need to watch these boys and the girls coming back home. Something's just not right. Too much is happening," Jeffrey Sexton told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Muncie police said Jacob Sexton had argued with theater employees on Monday night over having to show identification to see the R-rated horror comedy "Zombieland." Twenty minutes into the film, a friend handed Sexton a 9 mm handgun, at the guardsman's request, and he then shot himself in the head, police said.

The Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act of 2014 would:

Require annual mental health assessments for all servicemembers, including members of the Active, Guard, and Reserve components. Right now, the best and most consistent screening is happening only for those within the deployment cycle which can leave non-deployed members of the Active, Reserve, and Guard components underserved.

Maintain strong privacy protections for servicemembers. We must ensure that seeking help remains a sign of strength by protecting the privacy of the servicemember coming forward. The privacy of servicemembers would be ensured by guaranteeing medical privacy protections for these mental health assessments.

Require a Pentagon report to evaluate existing military mental health practices and provide recommendations for improvement. This report, which is due to Congress within a year of enactment of the bill, would help identify which programs are working and which need to be fixed. A specific focus of the report will be identifying successful peer-to-peer programs that address the need for a more bottom-up approach to identifying warning signs and combatting stigma in each of the Services, with the intention of future expansion.

The Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act will come up for a vote as part of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act this year.

There have been years of repeated "efforts" that were supposed to reduce suicides while removing the stigma attached to admitting a soldier needs help to heal PTSD. One of the first of such efforts was spawned by the suicide of a Montana National Guardsman Spec. Chris Dana.

The Montana National Guard is taking steps to help returning and deploying soldiers and airmen deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The Guard hopes to equip citizens with the tools to reach out to friends, family members and neighbors who could be suffering from PTSD through statewide meetings.

The meetings outline symptoms of both PTSD and mild traumatic brain injuries and how to get help.

Col. Jeff Ireland: "We want to do everything we can to most importantly take care of our soldiers, our airmen and their families and if we have someone suffering from PTSD, helping them to get into a program that will help to get them better so that we can continue them as a resource for the guard and also be a productive citizen."

There were two PTSD meetings Wednesday -- one in Helena at the Armed Forces Reserve Center and the other in Butte at the National Guard Armory.

This caused then Senator Obama to travel to Montana to talk about the efforts.

Montana National Guard Spc. Chris Dana will never know the impact his life and ultimately his death may someday have on the lives of veterans nationwide.

Dana took his life in March 2007, less than two years after returning from a tour in Iraq. His family believes he was a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, brought on by his combat experience.

Since Dana's death, his stepbrother Matt Kuntz has campaigned for more awareness of the costs of untreated post-traumatic stress syndrome in Iraq war veterans.

Wednesday, he was invited to meet with Sen. Barack Obama to share the message he's been spreading statewide for more than a year. At a quiet picnic table at Riverfront Park, Obama sat across from Kuntz, his wife, Sandy, and their infant daughter, Fiona.

And this was said before the election.

August 28, 2008 - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama promised Wednesday to expand Montana's pilot program to assess the mental health of combat vets nationwide, if elected.

The Montana National Guard has developed a program to check its soldiers and airmen for signs of post-traumatic stress disorder every six months for the first two years after returning from combat, then once a year thereafter. The program exceeds national standards set by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The pilot program was created in response to the suicide of former Army Spc. Chris Dana of Helena, who shot himself on March 4, 2007, days after being given a less-than-honorable discharge because he could no longer handle attending drills following a tour in Iraq.

"He (Obama) told me he understood why we need to have additional screenings for PTSD," said Matt Kuntz, Dana's stepbrother, who was among a small group invited to meet with Obama on Wednesday in Billings.

"And he told me when he is elected president, he will implement Montana's pilot program nationwide."

Kuntz, who recently gave up his job as a lawyer in Helena to advocate for the mentally ill and their families, said he was invited to brief Obama on how Montana had become a national model for assessing the mental health of its combat vets.

Besides the additional screenings, the Montana National Guard has developed crisis response teams that include a chaplain to investigate behavioral problems among its troops, and TriWest Healthcare pays to have four part-time counselors on hand to talk with soldiers and airmen during weekend drills.

After the briefing, Obama spent about 20 minutes telling several hundred veterans and their families that, if elected as president, he will be committed to meeting their needs.

I was hopeful. So were a lot of others that things would change because Senator Obama served on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and knew what was going on. He was one a few politicians paying attention to the bitter battles they fought after combat and suffering needlessly. He was one of a few politicians we expected to hold people accountable for what they failed to do.

Suicides went up after more bills and more money was spent by Congress yet as President, he has held no one accountable for any of it.

When Dallas Morning News and NBC reported Injured Heroes, Broken Promises: Hundreds of Soldiers Allege Mistreatment at Army Warrior Transition Units being told to man up and being treated like fakes, it showed exactly where all the talk, all the promises and all the claims made about changing the culture ended. It all ended with a bunch of nonsense produced by leaders like General Ray Odierno.

Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations.

But it also has to do with where you come from. I came from a loving family, one who gave lots of positive reinforcement, who built up psychologically who I was, who I am, what I might want to do.

If leaders are this boneheaded then how can anyone expect a bill will reduce suicides when they are being pushed to blame themselves? Congressional Bills have yet to be written to fix stupid.