Suicide Prevention Failed, Military Moves Onto Predicting?

Suicide prevention efforts failed big time. No matter how much money the DOD spent on prevention efforts, all 900 and some odd, the fact is there were more suicides. Did they get a clue about this? Hell no! They pushed the failed programs harder. Now they want to pretend they got that part right, at the same time they admit they got it wrong or at least it will be in the future?

If they understood suicides went up after they pushed failures like Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, then why did they push it year after year? If they had a clue as to why younger veterans commit suicide triple their peer rate after all the "prevention" training, then why didn't they end it?

Prediction can only work if they understand what the problem is, but so far, they haven't even begun to understand the problem originated with them!

Maybe they should just call Penn and Teller and save a lot of taxpayer funds and actually do something that will work to save lives!

How the Army Is Trying To Predict—and Prevent—the Next Suicide
NEXTGOV
BY FRANK KONKEL
MAY 7, 2015

There's more than just $65 million riding on a five-year effort to locate at-risk soldiers and get them the help they need before it's too late.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, and it’s been a particularly problematic issue for the U.S. military since soldiers first mobilized overseas in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In the U.S. Army, historically high suicide rates have more than doubled since 2001 among active duty soldiers, with 259 taking their own lives last year, according to a Pentagon report released in January.

“This is a big problem for the United States Army, it’s a big problem for the United States and it’s a big problem for the world,” Roy Wallace, assistant deputy chief of staff with the Army G-1, said Tuesday at the Government Analytics Forum in Washington, D.C.

Wallace said he believes analytics technology will succeed where various suicide prevention efforts over the years have failed: in saving soldiers’ lives.

The Army is in the midst of a five-year, $65 million effort called Army STARRS, which stands for Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Service members. The program aims to identify factors that protect or put at risk a soldier’s mental health.

With partners that include the National Institute of Mental Health, the University of Michigan and other educational institutions, Wallace said the Army is in a “huge big data operation,” analyzing some 1.1 billion data records from 39 Army and Defense Department databases looking for insights that could suggest a soldier is at elevated risk for suicide.

“What we’re trying to do is get down to predict who might commit suicide,” Wallace said.
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Considering they ignored the database telling them suicides went up after they started trying to prevent them, they have a lot bigger problem dealing with awareness and reality.

House hearing on military suicides on CSPAN

House Committee Armed Services
Military Personnel

Military leaders testified about their efforts to prevent suicides and reduce the stigma of mental health care for active duty members. They noted that suicide rates had decreased in the last year, but emphasized there areas for considerable improvement in military mental health care.

“I Don’t Ever Remember Wanting to Hurt Myself” – One Veteran’s Story

“I Don’t Ever Remember Wanting to Hurt Myself” – One Veteran’s Story
Filed under DOD NEWS, SUICIDE PREVENTION
Written on SEPTEMBER 13, 2011 AT 8:30 AM by JTOZER
Posted by Corina Notyce, DCoE Strategic Communications
From www.DcoE.health.mil

The Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury (DCoE) is sharing personal accountsfrom members of the military community who have intervened and successfully prevented a suicide, assisted someone in need, or took steps to seek help themselves when they experienced suicidal thoughts. We hope these personal stories offer hope and encouragement and remind others that help is out there. If you are currently having thoughts of suicide or know someone that is, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) for immediate help, military community members choose 1.

The following story is shared by Army veteran Micheal K. Strong. In May, he participated in the 2011 Warrior Games on the U.S. Paralympic Team.

My name is Micheal K. Strong, and I survived.

I don’t ever remember wanting to hurt myself. Although, looking back on everything, it was kind of hard to ignore the warning signs. I was even trained as the company suicide prevention NCO. I was always the soldier that had the “Suck it up, and drive on” mentality. That doesn’t always work or fit everyone.

I was becoming more reclusive and withdrawn. I had sought help through the chaplain, and I was feeling better. I remember feeling hopeless and not seeing anything in my future. On July 15, 2009 I shot myself through the face. I don’t remember doing it, but I can remember every detail when I came to from being knocked out, until they put me to sleep in the Emergency Room.
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Fort Hood takes aim at stigma of needing help

The more I think about what needs to be done, the more I am convinced a huge part of this is being missed. We've talked about getting them to understand that considering what they survived, PTSD is one of the results for those able to feel things deeply. The more they are able to feel, the deeper they are also able to feel pain. For them, they don't just walk away with their own pain but pain felt from the suffering of others. This is what haunts them. We've talked about the need for more therapists to be ready for them to talk to and sort it all out. Medications to help level off the chemical balance in their brains. Family involvement and getting them to understand how they react has a lot to do with how much healing can happen. Early treatment to prevent full blown PTSD. The list goes on. But one other fact about their character stands out and we cannot avoid talking about it.

Pride. Not the kind of pride that tells them they are better than PTSD or the kind of pride that tells them they will look weak to the people in their lives. The kind of pride that a "helper" feels when they are the ones always being ready to help also being the last to ask for help.

I know that feeling well. I am the type of person always rushing to help someone else but I also find it nearly impossible to ask for help when I need it. "I should be able to do it all." "If I need help someone out there needs it more than I do." While this type of personality does not look down at the people we help, when we need it, we feel we shouldn't need it at all.

Fort Hood takes aim at stigma as it battles record suicide pace
Officials hope role-playing sends message to soldiers: It's OK to get help.
By Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, Sept. 3, 2010
FORT HOOD — Inside a darkened theater, camouflage-wearing soldiers shuffle toward their seats to confront an enemy that has taken record numbers of their comrades in the past year.

On the stage, four actors re-enact a situation in which a soldier who recently returned from war describes the pain and hopelessness he feels but doesn't know how to handle. Jamey Gadoury , an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, interrupts the action and talks directly to the troops, many of whom are about to deploy to Iraq next month.

"We talk a lot as an Army about warrior culture," he says. "As an Army we know what courage on the battlefield looks like. The question is, when it comes to a life-and-death situation with a buddy, can I dig deep to that same sense of courage?"

This sprawling Army post, the nation's largest, is set to pass an unwelcome milestone. Through July, officials say there have been 14 confirmed or suspected suicides of Fort Hood soldiers, eclipsing last year's total by three and matching the total in 2008, which saw the most suicides of Fort Hood soldiers since the wars began. The spike at Fort Hood comes as the suicide rate for the whole Army doubled between 2005 and 2009, leaving military leaders searching for answers and scrambling to implement suicide prevention measures.

"The Army realized too late that there was a very serious problem," Gen. Peter Chiarelli , the vice chief of staff for the Army, wrote in a report last month that provided a stark assessment of the Army's suicide prevention efforts.
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Fort Hood takes aim at stigma

To explain this take two houses on fire. An average person will take care of their own home first and then go help the neighbor. If one of the homes belongs to a firefighter, they will help the neighbor first and then take care of what is left of their own home. They are that devoted to helping others.

For the men and women in the military, it's the same devotion few average people come close to understanding. For the members of the National Guard and Reserves, it is more deeply rooted within them. They are ready 24-7 risking their lives in other countries as well as in their own states or other states depending on the level of the emergency.

I give time, hours when I can but they are willing to give their lives. As hard as it is for me to ask for help, for them it is nearly impossible. Once they understand they cannot help anyone if they are falling apart, losing sleep and suffering, they are more willing to ask for help. If they are approached by someone pointing out that there is a need for help for them alone, they have a hard time being willing to accept it.

We've gotten the message through to a lot of veterans and servicemen/women that there is a reason PTSD has entered into their lives and a lot have sought help but too many still refuse to ask. If we are going to reach them, they need to know asking for help will help them to be able to help others again.

A lot of veterans I talk to want one thing out of healing. The ability to help other veterans like themselves. Often they want to do this while they are just beginning to heal. This happens more often with Vietnam veterans than the newer generation. It is in their nature to help and if this feature of their character is understood and supported, they want it. It helps them to put the fire out in their own home first so they can take care of their neighbor better.

Shoulder to Shoulder saving their lives

Fort Hood finally takes on mind-body-spirit with new program

Hood center offers spiritual help

By Angela K. Brown - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 29, 2009 6:58:39 EDT

FORT HOOD, Texas — In a converted chapel, a television plays footage of soldiers talking about successes in Iraq and Afghanistan, classrooms offer battlefield ethics or marriage enrichment courses and a chaplain is available 24 hours a day.

It isn’t a church any longer but the Spiritual Fitness Center, one part of Fort Hood’s new Resiliency Campus. It is the Army’s first such facility designed to help soldiers and their families prepare better for the stress and uncertainty of being deployed — often for the second or third time.

“We want to do more going into deployments and build inner strength in soldiers and their families rather than just fix them when they return,” said Col. Bill Rabena, who oversees the Resiliency Campus. “It’s about the mind, body and spirit.”
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Hood center offers spiritual help

Army suicides continue to rise 82 since January

Just one question: When will they ever learn they have been dead wrong on how to treat them?

June 11th, 2009
Army suicides continue to rise
Posted: 04:18 PM ET
By Mike Mount
CNN Senior Pentagon Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The suicide rate among U.S. Army soldiers jumped in May — continuing a four-month upward trend and on a record pace for a second straight year, according to Army statistics released Thursday.

Last month the deaths of 17 soldiers were either confirmed or suspected to be suicides, up from 13 in April and 13 in March, the new numbers revealed. The Army said the total number of potential or confirmed suicides since January stands at 82. Last year the Army recorded a record 133 suicides.

Earlier this year Army officials saw the suicide numbers moving up, and by February said the service was on track for a record year for suicides.

Only one of the 17 in May has been confirmed as a suicide, while the others remain under investigation and are listed as “potential suicides,” according to the latest statistics.

The Army initially classifies a death as “potential suicide” or “confirmed suicide” and moves the numbers between categories after an investigation into the death is complete, according to Army officials.
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/

Army approves suicide prevention plan

Army approves suicide prevention plan

By Pauline Jelinek - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Apr 23, 2009 22:01:05 EDT

WASHINGTON — The Army has approved new guidance to military commanders in an effort to stem the rising toll of soldier suicides.

The Army said in a statement Thursday that the new plan was approved by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli after he recently visited a half dozen American military bases and talked to commanders and staff who care for soldiers and their families.

The Army didn't disclose details of the new plan Thursday. But officials had said earlier the suicide prevention plan would include hiring more mental health workers and tightening the way the service handles drug testing, health screening and a host of other long-standing procedures that in some cases have become lax as the Army has focused in recent years on fighting two wars.

Army leadership has become more alarmed as suicides from January through March rose to a reported 56 — 22 confirmed and 34 still being investigated and pending confirmation. Usually, most suspected suicides are eventually confirmed. The 2009 number compares with 140 for all of last year, also a record at the time and blamed partly on strains caused by repeated deployments for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Army approves suicide prevention plan