US Army Releases October Suicide Data

The Army released sui­cide data today for the month of Octo­ber. Among active-duty sol­diers, there were 17 poten­tial sui­cides: one has been con­firmed as sui­cide and 16 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For Sep­tem­ber 2011, the Army report­ed 16 poten­tial sui­cides among active-duty sol­diers. Since the release of that report, one case has been added for a total of 17 cas­es. Three cas­es have been con­firmed as sui­cide and 14 cas­es remain under inves­ti­ga­tion.

Dur­ing Octo­ber 2011, among reserve com­po­nent sol­diers who were not on active duty, there were 12 poten­tial sui­cides: none have been con­firmed as sui­cide and 12 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For Sep­tem­ber 2011, the Army report­ed six poten­tial sui­cides among not-on-active-duty sol­diers. Since the release of that report, two cas­es have been added for a total of eight cas­es. Three cas­es have been con­firmed as sui­cide and five cas­es remain under investigation. 

Maj. Gen. David E. Quan­tock, direc­tor of the Army Health Pro­mo­tion and Risk Reduc­tion Task Force, knows how the tragedy of sui­cide affects our sol­diers, civil­ians, and fam­i­lies. He joins the task force as the for­mer com­mand­ing gen­er­al of the U.S. Army Maneu­ver Sup­port Cen­ter of Excel­lence, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. “Our peo­ple are the Army and their health and well-being are top pri­or­i­ties. This is very impor­tant work and I can assure you that the Army team is ful­ly engaged and is total­ly com­mit­ted to it,” said Quantock. 

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)