Suicide Prevention Texts for Soldiers...working or not?

Mixed Results With Suicide Prevention Texts for Soldiers

Primary endpoints missed, but intervention showed benefit in secondary outcomes
MedPage Today
by Elizabeth Hlavinka, Staff Writer
February 13, 2019

The intervention was based on a caring letters study in the 1970s co-designed by Jerome Motto, who hypothesized that increasing connection would decrease the rates of suicide in a civilian population, and that this could be accomplished by sending a series of letters expressing care and concern, Kerbrat told MedPage Today.

Supportive text messages did not decrease suicidal ideation or "risk incidents" among military personnel at risk for suicide in a randomized trial, but there appeared to be significant benefit for some important secondary outcomes including suicide attempts.

No significant reductions were observed in terms of suicide risk incidents -- inpatient admission or evacuation associated with suicidality -- or current suicide ideation at 12 months among military personnel who were assigned to the text-based intervention compared with standard care alone, reported Amanda Kerbrat, MSW, of the University of Washington, and colleagues.

Stein noted this intervention's failure to meet its primary endpoints could be due to military personnel being "embedded in a rich social milieu that, if nothing else, is hardly isolating," and that, in fact, the social disconnectedness theory behind Caring Contact might not apply to this population.
read more here

"Social isolating" is not their biggest problem. Hiding what is going on with them is! Not knowing what PTSD is feeds the stigma and prevents them from opening their mouths or tapping their fingers on a keypad.

And yes, you read the year right...but the DoD does not tell you that part.

Want to save them? Then explain to the what PTSD is, what it does, and HOW TO DEFEAT IT!
Tell them they can #TakeBackYourLife before they think of taking their lives. Yep, they do not know that one either!