Noteboom The Law Firm

Suicide Prevention Task Force Targets Military Personnel

January 7, 2011 - The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (NAASP) has recognized both soldiers and veterans as being at high risk for suicides based on the rising suicide rates among military personnel. In order to address the problems they see as contributing to those numbers, the NAASP deployed a task force to focus specifically on finding solutions to existing issues.

The task force will join Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) suicide prevention programs already in progress. In doing so, suicide prevention programs aimed at military personnel will combine approaches from both public and private sectors into a single effort.

The alliance between these different entities is demonstrative of just how important it is to take a united approach to preventing suicides among military personnel and veterans. Combining efforts in such an approach will allow the pooling of both government and private-sector resources to research and examine the reasons behind the rising military suicide rate.

Soldiers and veterans are not the only ones affected by suicides. The larger community as a whole, which includes their families, their employers, and their neighbors, are all affected by the suicide of a single person. The solution, then, must include all these people as well. Suicides among military personnel have grown every year for the last 5 years, which definitely puts them into a high risk category that demands immediate attention.