USA — Army Releases December and 2010 Suicide Data

The Army released today sui­cide data for the month of Decem­ber and for 2010. Dur­ing Decem­ber, among active-duty sol­diers, there were 12 poten­tial sui­cides: one has been con­firmed as sui­cide, and 11 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. To com­pare and update, in Novem­ber, the Army report­ed 11 poten­tial sui­cides among active-duty sol­diers. Since the release of that report, one has been con­firmed as a sui­cide, and 10 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For 2010, there were 156 poten­tial active-duty sui­cides of which 125 have been con­firmed as sui­cides, and 31 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion.

Dur­ing Decem­ber, among reserve com­po­nent sol­diers who were not on active duty, there were 16 poten­tial sui­cides: none have been con­firmed as sui­cide, and 16 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. To com­pare and update, in Novem­ber among that same group, there were eight total sui­cides. Of those, two were con­firmed as sui­cides and six are pend­ing deter­mi­na­tion of the man­ner of death. For 2010, there were 145 poten­tial not on active duty sui­cides of which 106 have been con­firmed as sui­cide, and 39 remain under investigation. 

“Our research and analy­sis of the sui­cide cas­es of this past year con­tin­ue to rein­force that there are no uni­ver­sal solu­tions to address the com­plex­i­ties of per­son­al, social and behav­ioral health issues that lead to sui­cide with­in the Army,” said Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy direc­tor, Army Health Pro­mo­tion, Risk Reduc­tion Task Force. 

“Regret­tably, the num­bers of sui­cides in the Army fam­i­ly did not dimin­ish in 2010, but, we are com­mit­ted to edu­cat­ing and inform­ing our sol­diers and their fam­i­lies to bet­ter under­stand the increas­ing rate of sui­cides in the force and reduce the num­ber of sol­diers, civil­ians and fam­i­ly mem­bers we lose to sui­cide. Our unit lead­ers, first-line super­vi­sors and close friends must con­tin­ue to be vig­i­lant to the warn­ing signs of risky behav­ior, and to look for ways and oppor­tu­ni­ties to reach out to those who need help,” Philbrick said. 

Sol­diers and fam­i­lies in need of cri­sis assis­tance can con­tact the Nation­al Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Life­line. Trained con­sul­tants are avail­able 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and can be con­tact­ed at 1–800-273-TALK (8255) or by vis­it­ing their web­site at http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

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

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.

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 at 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 out­reach cen­ter can be con­tact­ed at 1–866-966‑1020, and via elec­tron­ic mail at http://www.dcoe.health.mil.

The web­site for the Amer­i­can Foun­da­tion for Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion is at 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 at 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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