Military’s Suicide Prevention Efforts Deemed Inadequate

August 30, 2010 - The Department of Defense (DoD) established a task force focused on preventing suicides by military personnel. Last Thursday that task force presented some of their findings and the picture they painted was bleak, at best.

The military employs suicide prevention programs numbering almost 900 spread out over 400 of their worldwide bases. According to the task force, the approach the DoD is using is simply not working. The DoD's failures are evidenced by the 309 military personnel who took their own lives last year. And the 267 who took their own lives in 2008. And the 224 who took their lives in 2007.

It isn't that prevention efforts don't work; they do, according to the task force. The problem is the DoD's tactics aren't working. Military personnel committing suicide following combat deployments is not the norm. It is possible for the DoD to change tactics then, and start saving lives. It is clear the amount and rate of suicides has risen steadily since the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts began.

The task force did find military personnel were not spending nearly enough time reintegrating into their communities. The task force suggested the military make their suicide prevention programs as efficient as possible and at the same time establish an office under the Secretary of Defense to bring the streamlined prevention programs into reality.

The task force goes on to make a litany of other suggestions as to how the military can prevent more suicides. The suggestions range from communicating with families on a more intimate level to taking a different approach to treating the soldiers' overall mental fitness from day one in basic training. There should not be one soldier taking their own life because they didn't know help was available.