US Army Released May Suicide Data

The Army released sui­cide data today for the month of May. Among active-duty sol­diers, there were 21 poten­tial sui­cides: one has been con­firmed as sui­cide, and 20 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For April 2011, the Army report­ed 16 poten­tial sui­cides among active-duty sol­diers. Since the release of that report, two cas­es have been con­firmed as sui­cide, and 14 cas­es remain under inves­ti­ga­tion.

Dur­ing May 2011, among reserve com­po­nent sol­diers who were not on active duty, there were six poten­tial sui­cides: none have been con­firmed as sui­cides, and six remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For April 2011, among that same group, there were 11 total sui­cides (two addi­tion­al sui­cides for April were report­ed after the ini­tial report). Of those, four were con­firmed as sui­cide and sev­en are pend­ing deter­mi­na­tion of the man­ner of death. 

The Army con­tin­ues to focus on ensur­ing its lead­ers have the train­ing and knowl­edge to address high-risk behav­ior and pre­vent sui­cide. Com­pa­ny com­mand teams are pro­vid­ed train­ing on the req­ui­site skills to iden­ti­fy and mit­i­gate high-risk behav­ior. “When it comes to sui­cide and oth­er high-risk behav­ior, we can­not afford to relearn past lessons. Incum­bent com­man­ders must con­tin­ue to famil­iar­ize new lead­ers with the prin­ci­ples of lead­er­ship in gar­ri­son,” said Gen. Peter Chiarel­li, Army vice chief of staff. 

Sol­diers and fam­i­lies in need of cri­sis assis­tance can con­tact the Nation­al Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Life­line. Trained con­sul­tants are avail­able 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week, 365 days a year and can be con­tact­ed by dial­ing 1–800-273-TALK (8255) or by vis­it­ing their web­site at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org .

Army lead­ers can access cur­rent health pro­mo­tion guid­ance in new­ly revised Army Reg­u­la­tion 600–63 (Health Pro­mo­tion) at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r600_63.pdf and Army Pam­phlet 600–24 (Health Pro­mo­tion, Risk Reduc­tion and Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion) at http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_24.pdf .

The Army’s com­pre­hen­sive list of Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Pro­gram infor­ma­tion is locat­ed at http://www.preventsuicide.army.mil .

Sui­cide pre­ven­tion train­ing resources for Army fam­i­lies can be accessed at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/training_sub.asp?sub_cat=20 (requires Army Knowl­edge Online access to down­load materials). 

Infor­ma­tion about Mil­i­tary One­Source is locat­ed at http://www.militaryonesource.com or by dial­ing the toll-free num­ber 1–800-342‑9647 for those resid­ing in the con­ti­nen­tal Unit­ed States. Over­seas per­son­nel should refer to the Mil­i­tary One­Source web­site for dial­ing instruc­tions for their spe­cif­ic location. 

Infor­ma­tion about the Army’s Com­pre­hen­sive Sol­dier Fit­ness Pro­gram is locat­ed at http://www.army.mil/csf .

The Defense Cen­ter for Excel­lence for Psy­cho­log­i­cal Health and Trau­mat­ic Brain Injury (DCoE) Out­reach Cen­ter can be con­tact­ed at 1–866-966‑1020, via elec­tron­ic mail at Resources@DCoEOutreach.org and at http://www.dcoe.health.mil .

The web­site for the Amer­i­can Foun­da­tion for Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion is http://www.afsp.org, and the Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Resource Coun­cil site is found at http://www.sprc.org/index.asp .

The web­site for the Tragedy Assis­tance Pro­gram for Sur­vivors is http://www.TAPS.org, and they can be reached at 1–800-959-TAPS (8277).

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

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