U.S. Army Releases April Suicide Data

The Army released sui­cide data today for the month of April. Dur­ing April, among active-duty sol­diers, there were 14 poten­tial sui­cides: two have been con­firmed as sui­cides and 12 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For March, the Army report­ed 18 poten­tial sui­cides among active-duty sol­diers. Since the release of that report, 12 have been con­firmed as sui­cides and six remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For 2012, there have been 61 poten­tial active-duty sui­cides: 35 have been con­firmed as sui­cides and 26 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. Active-duty sui­cide num­bers for 2011: 164 (164 have been con­firmed as sui­cides and none remain under investigation). 

Dur­ing April, among reserve com­po­nent sol­diers who were not on active duty, there were 13 poten­tial sui­cides (five Army Nation­al Guard and eight Army Reserve): two have been con­firmed as sui­cide and 11 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For March, among that same group, the Army report­ed 10 poten­tial sui­cides (sev­en Army Nation­al Guard and three Army Reserve). Since the release of that report, six have been con­firmed as sui­cides and four remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For 2012, there have been 34 poten­tial not on active duty sui­cides (22 Army Nation­al Guard and 12 Army Reserve): 18 have been con­firmed as sui­cides and 16 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. Updat­ed not on active duty sui­cide num­bers for 2011: 118 (82 Army Nation­al Guard and 36 Army Reserve); 118 have been con­firmed as sui­cides and none remain under investigation. 

“The Army’s abil­i­ty and com­mit­ment to care for our nation’s great­est trea­sure — America’s sons and daugh­ters — is the bedrock of our nation’s trust in our Army. A key com­po­nent of our com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing this trust is our ongo­ing effort to reduce the stig­ma of seek­ing help when need­ed. By achiev­ing a cul­tur­al change that encour­ages help-seek­ing behav­iors, we will be pos­tured to more effec­tive­ly com­bat sui­cide with­in our ranks,” said Brig. Gen. Bar­rye L. Price, direc­tor, human resources pol­i­cy, Army G‑1.

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 .

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