WDAM 7 News
By Mike Lacy, Reporter
June 16th 2016
"Fifteen active duty Navy personnel have died by suicide in 2016"
Officials with the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport amp up call for early intervention in wake of two suicides in less than a week. (Photo source: WLOX News)GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) - Two sailors at the Naval Construction Battalion Center took their own lives in less than a week.
One sailor took his own life on June 10, and the second jumped off the top floor of a Gulfport parking garage five days later.
Base officials say all the resources that can help prevent suicide are there - suicide prevention is a priority at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport.
But those resources - medical, mental and spiritual based - do nothing if no one reaches out.
“There are so many more now than there used to be resources available,” said Paula Ingram, education services facilitator at Fleet and Family Support Center. “All we can do is inform people but we cannot make them come in.”
Although personnel receive training, Ingram believes some military members are worried that reaching out may affect their career.
“They know about the resources....They’ve heard the training so many times, they can give it,” Ingram said. “What keeps somebody from reaching out to the resources, I don’t know.”
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Will the Navy take accountability for facilitating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the commands?
ReplyDeleteIs part of the suicide prevention program centered around changing the way the training programs are run and monitoring the supervision at these commands?
Will systematic changes be made in light of the multiple recent deaths?
Maybe more should be done instead of waiting for someone one to reach out for mental health help, maybe proactive reaching in to the lives of these sailors could help them more.
They all have life stressors but in consideration of the commonality of their profession, training, location, age it would be prudent to look at the stress the Naval establishment puts on them as well.
Bullying needs to end. What is being done about bullying needs to change. The public coversation about suicide in the Navy needs to start.
These young men and women need to know that without a doubt they will not be shamed or their career impeded by coming forward and speaking out.
Leeadership needs to make serious changes in the Naval Organization, before another life is lost.
All valid questions however, they have never really answered any of them other than to say "One is too many" and they pass the buck. The DOD started prevention training back in 2006 yet suicides went up within the military and in the veterans community. The real question is, if that training did not work on the non-deployed, how did they expect it to work on those with multiple deployments? They learned nothing, changed nothing but blamed everything and everyone. So much for military intelligence.
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