US Army Releases December & Calendar Year 2011 Suicide Data

The Army released sui­cide data today for the month of Decem­ber and cal­en­dar year (CY) 2011. Dur­ing Decem­ber, among active-duty sol­diers, there were 11 poten­tial sui­cides: two have been con­firmed as sui­cide, and nine remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For Novem­ber, the Army report­ed sev­en poten­tial sui­cides among active-duty sol­diers. Since the release of that report, five have been con­firmed as a sui­cide, and two remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For CY 2011 there were 164 poten­tial active-duty sui­cides of which 140 have been con­firmed as sui­cides, and 24 remain under investigation. 

Dur­ing Decem­ber, among reserve com­po­nent sol­diers who were not on active duty, there were five poten­tial sui­cides (four Army Nation­al Guard and one Army Reserve): three have been con­firmed as sui­cide and two remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For Novem­ber, among that same group, there were eight poten­tial sui­cides. Since the release of that report, three cas­es have been added for a total of 11 cas­es (11 Army Nation­al Guard and no Army Reserve). Of those, nine were con­firmed as sui­cides and two remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For CY 2011, there were 114 poten­tial not on active duty sui­cides (80 Nation­al Guard and 34 Army Reserve): 102 have been con­firmed as sui­cide, and 12 remain under investigation. 

A report released today, “Army 2020 Gen­er­at­ing the Health and Dis­ci­pline of the Force,” referred to as the “Army Gold Book,” rep­re­sents the next phase in Army health and dis­ci­pli­nary pro­mo­tion efforts. The report assess­es progress made, as well as iden­ti­fies and address­es remain­ing gaps in pol­i­cy, pro­grams and pro­ce­dures relat­ing to sol­dier health and dis­ci­pline since the release of the “Army Red Book” in July 2010. It also under­scores the impor­tance of ongo­ing leader edu­ca­tion, tire­less com­mit­ment and open com­mu­ni­ca­tion at all lev­els in assur­ing that the right choic­es con­tin­ue to be made for our sol­diers, the Army and our nation. 

“As we look ahead to the strate­gic reset, tran­si­tion­ing from a pre­dom­i­nant­ly wartime Army to a ready and respon­sive one, lead­ers at every lev­el must be active­ly engaged. They must under­stand the issues addressed in this report, apply the many lessons learned and, unlike the most­ly reac­tive efforts of the post-Viet­nam Army, con­tin­ue to take a proac­tive approach to gen­er­at­ing health and dis­ci­pline in the force. 

“This report should serve as a com­pre­hen­sive guide, a roadmap of sorts reflect­ing not only how far we have come in recent years, but more impor­tant­ly, pro­vide direc­tion as we look ahead to the strate­gic reset and the many chal­lenges we will inevitably face as we come back home,” accord­ing to the “Gold Book.” 

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 athttp://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.comor by dial­ing the toll-free num­ber 1–800-342–9647for 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 athttp://www.sprc.org/index.asp .

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