Military Putting Lives in Jeopardy With Suicide Prevention

Lives Jeopardized By Resilient Training
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 9, 2016

How does anyone get away with a decade of claims on suicide prevention when results have proven them wrong time and time again? How do they get away with continuing a program pushed on every servicemember when that same program they point to could not even prevent the suicides of non-deployed members?

It is anyone's guess how they expected it to work for those with multiple deployments into Afghanistan and Iraq. The problem is, no one is even trying to guess what that answer would be.

Well it looks as if the rest of the online world has discovered suicides in the military have gone up, yet again.

Two days after Wounded Times tracked down the report from the DOD, News 13 out of Virginia decided to cover it.

Military suicides on the increase and in the report there was this stunning quote.

"It surprises me that it went up because we are working so hard to try to prevent," said Captain Raymond Houk, lead chaplain for the installations in the 20 states which fall under Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, and, the more than 167,000 active duty and civil servant employees who work there. "But it also occurred to what we don't know. And what we don' know is how many lives we've saved by the interventions that we've done."

What he didn't say was how many lives were lost after all these years of their "efforts" to reduce suicides. Forget about the attempted suicides within the military along with all the veterans no longer being counted by the military after they were also "trained" with the same efforts.

Maybe the greatest question that needs to be answered is this one. "How many lives could have been saved had they actually paid attention to the results and changed what already failed?"

The biggest forgettable regret is the other simple fact. Every branch of the military has seen a reduction in the number of servicemembers by thousands. Less to count actually means there is an even higher percentage of them dying. These charts are from the DOD suicide report for the third quarter of 2015.  We still don't know what the actual yearly total will turn out to be.

May 29, 2009 I wrote that if the military promoted Comprehensive Soldier Fitness the way they promoted Battlemind, they would in fact increase suicides.

"If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them."

I was right and it breaks my heart that I figured it out as an average person but these "experts" still don't have a clue they are doing more harm than good with all the "resilience training" spread out giving service-members the wrong message.

What is more reprehensible is they do not even feel accountable for for the outcomes. There has been no on held accountable for any of these deadly results.  Not the contractors selling their "programs" while they were in fact nothing more than research projects with unproven results.  Not the brass pushing these "efforts" when the results proved deadly years ago. Not the politicians serving on the House and Senate Armed Forces Committees or the others voting for bills that fueled the problems while draining much needed funds from actually taking care of the service-members and their families.

Not even the reporters covering these heart-wrenching stories yet so disconnected from the pain they fail to even ask the basic question. "When does someone pay attention so they stop failing so many?"

The depth of their emotional core is what causes them to be willing to die for the sake of others and what allows so much pain in their lives. Resilient? They already were but they think that means they should be impervious. They still misunderstand what PTSD is, what causes it and the simple fact that they can change again to live better lives. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder only happens to survivors of traumatic events yet they think it is their fault for not training right or being mentally weak.

That is the message all this "resiliency training" has delivered since it started.

The truth is the military has placed that love in jeopardy.

Where were you when I needed you?
Well, you could not be found
What can I do? Oh, I believed in you
You're running me around

Well, you can take it as a warning
Or take it any way you like
It's the lightning, not the thunder
You never know when it's going to strike

Our love's in jeopardy, baby
Ooh
Our love's in jeopardy, baby
Ooh

Don't be cute, don't be funny now
It's later than you think
Oh, what's the use? Oh, save your money now
It's hanging on the brink

Don't let go while I'm hanging on
'Cause I've been hanging on so long
It's so hard to be all alone
I know you're not that strong, yeah, yeah
Jeopardy Gregg Kihn Band