They Finally Figured Out Pentagon Suicide Prevention Office in Disarray

Report: Pentagon suicide prevention office in disarray
Military Times
By Patricia Kime, Staff writer
October 2, 2015

The Pentagon’s suicide prevention office lacks clear guidance and authority to develop and execute effective programs, leaving a vacuum that the military services filled with their own, often inconsistent programs, a new Defense Department Inspector General report says.

Defense Suicide Prevention Office logo

(Photo: Defense Department)

The Defense Suicide Prevention Office, or DSPO, was established in 2011 to develop and implement suicide prevention policies, programs and surveillance across the force, with any eye toward promoting resilience, mental fitness and suicide awareness and prevention.

But from its inception, the office had a confusing governing structure and alignment of responsibilities under different committees within the office of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, resulting in “less than effective DoD strategic oversight" that hampered implementation of suicide prevention programs, according to the report released Wednesday.

According to Pentagon data, 130 active-duty troops died by suicide from January through June this year, along with 89 reserve members and 56 National Guard members.

Last year, 273 active-duty personnel, 170 reservists and 91 Guardsmen took their own lives.

Military suicides rose steadily from 2006 to 2009 before leveling off for two years. They then increased sharply in 2012, peaking at a high of 321 active-duty, 192 reserve and 130 Guard deaths.
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Military suicides remain constant despite Pentagon efforts
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: October 2, 2015

WASHINGTON — Despite an ongoing Pentagon campaign to combat suicide, the numbers of troops who killed themselves held steady in the first half of 2015, with active duty numbers down and reserve numbers up over the same period last year, according to the most recent Department of Defense statistics.

The Defense Department quarterly statistics, released Wednesday, show 219 troops took their lives in the first half of this year, as compared to 223 in the first half of 2014. Military suicides are down 8 percent from the first half of 2013, when there were 238.

For this year, the number of suicides breaks down to 130 among active duty troops and 89 among the Reserves and National Guard. That represents a 9 percent drop for active duty troops and a 10 percent rise for reserve troops over the same period last year.
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Why? How about you start with Comprehensive Soldier Fitness? Suicides went up after this started. How did they expect telling soldiers they could train their brains to be mentally tough would work when that meant they were weak if they suffered? It fed the stigma. Plus add in another fact that there are less serving since 2012 and you'll begin to understand how huge this issue is. Veteran suicides went up for OEF and OIF generation as well. They are triple their civilian peer rate. They were trained to suffer in silence too!