AKO Webmail, Vice Chief of Army Staff reported a slight reduction from last year in suicides committed by active duty soldiers, 162 in 2009 to 156 in 2010. “While we have achieved modest success in reducing the number of suicides of active duty soldiers,” said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, W., “we saw a significant increase in the number of suicides by soldiers who did not serve active duty, to include a doubling of the National Guard. “
In 2009, the number of soldiers from the Guard and Reserve who have committed suicide while not on active duty was 80. In 2010, that number has almost doubled to 145.
“In 2010, we have two obvious questions: first what happened, and secondly, we must be able to respond and tell people what we do about it,” Major General Ray Carpenter, Interim Director of the Army National Guard, said.
According to Carpenter, the 2010anlysis shows that this is not a deployment issue, because more than 50 percent of people who committed suicide in the Army National Guard was never deployed. This is not an employment problem, because only about 15 percent of people who committed suicide in fact, were unemployed.
“As you look at it, a party is a significant relationship problem, because more than 50 percent of those who committed suicide had some kind of problem they were dealing partner if it was marriage, divorce, or a small friend, girlfriend, that sort of thing. Our effort is to build resilience among the soldiers, “said Carpenter.
To help understand the factors involved in suicide, the Army has partnered with the National Institute of Mental Health on a program called Army STARRS.
Army STARRS, the study of the Army to assess the risk and resilience to Servicemembers, was officially launched in late 2008.
During the five-year study, to run until 2014, and working with tens of thousands of soldiers, NIMH and the rest of the research team – including the Uniformed Services University Services Health, University of Michigan, Harvard University and Columbia University – hope to identify risk factors and protective influence on the psychological resilience of a soldier, mental health, and potential self-harm.
“When you realize that we are a young American in the military today, psychologists will tell you, in six years in the U.S. Army under the OPTEMPO that we are currently we are putting them under so much stress in a period of six years than they would if they lived 80 years in Seattle, Washington, and all they were doing there, “said Chiarelli.
Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director of the Army Health Promotion, Risk Reduction Task Force, said in a statement earlier that the research andanlysis of cases of suicide over the past year that continue to strengthen ‘There is no universal solutions to address the complexity of personal health problems and social behavior that lead to suicide in the army.
“The only positive thing I see is that some of our programs begin to work, but more important than anything else, our leaders are firmly committed to this issue now. We come to the issue of stigma, we get people from the help they need and hopefully you’ll see those numbers go down significantly in the coming year, “said Chiarelli.
Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 25 – to 44 seniors in the United States. Historically, the suicide rate was lower in the military than among civilians. In 2008, this trend was reversed, with the rate of suicide in the army up to the age-adjusted rate among the civilian population (20.2 per 100,000 against 19.2).
Although the constraints of the current war, including the long and repeated deployments and posttraumatic stress, are important potential contributors to the address search, experts emphasize that suicidal behavior is a complex phenomenon.
The study will examine a wide range of factors related and unrelated to military service, including unit cohesion, exposure to combat-related trauma, personal and economic stresses, family history, childhood adversity and abuse, and overall mental health.
“I really believe that when we put more time between deployments will be very important in helping to get many of these problems,” said Chiarelli. “I really believe that people is one of the things we have to look at, and has an impact on all sorts of problems, not just suicide, but you know, all the things that fall short of suicide problems relationships drug and alcohol abuse, high risk behaviors, all these things. The more time we can get between deployments, the better we’ll be. ”
Soldiers and families in need of assistance may contact the national crisis Lifeline suicide prevention. Trained counselors 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 visit the website at http: / / www. suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
Exhaustive list of the Army Suicide Prevention Program information is located http://www.preventsuicide.army.mil.
Army leaders can access the current direction of health promotion newly revised Army Regulation 600-63 (Health Promotion) at: http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf / r600_63.pdf and the Army Pamphlet 600-24 (health promotion, risk reduction and prevention of suicide) to http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/p600_24.pdf.
Suicide prevention training resources for families of the Army can be found at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/training_sub.asp? Sub_cat=20 (requires Army Knowledge Online access to download the material).
Information on Military OneSource is located http://www.militaryonesource.com or toll free at 1-800-342-9647 for people residing in the continental United States. Personnel abroad should consult the Web site Military OneSource for dialing instructions for their specific location.
Information on Army soldier complete fitness program is located http://www.army.mil/csf/.
The Centre of Excellence for Defence mental health and traumatic brain injury center Extension can be reached at 1-866-966-1020, and email to http://www.dcoe.health.mil.
The site of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is http://www.afsp.org/ and Suicide Prevention Resource Council site is http://www.sprc.org/index.asp.
Source : http://usspost.com/ako-webmail-28622/