USA — Army Releases August Suicide Data

The Army released sui­cide data today for the month of August 2010. Among active-duty sol­diers, there were 13 poten­tial sui­cides: none have been con­firmed as sui­cides, and all 13 remain under inves­ti­ga­tion. For July, the Army report­ed 12 poten­tial sui­cides among active-duty sol­diers. Since the release of that report, five have been con­firmed as sui­cides, and sev­en remain under investigation. 

Dur­ing August, among reserve com­po­nent sol­diers who were not on active duty, there were 10 poten­tial sui­cides. For July, among that same group, there were 16 total sui­cides. Of those, eight were con­firmed as sui­cides and eight are pend­ing deter­mi­na­tion of the man­ner of death. 

“With the release of the Army Health Pro­mo­tion, Risk Reduc­tion and Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Report in July, the Army has tran­si­tioned sui­cide pre­ven­tion efforts to the Health Pro­mo­tion, Risk Reduc­tion Coun­cil and Task Force. These two ele­ments will help ana­lyze, shape and imple­ment the more than 240 addi­tion­al changes to Army pol­i­cy, pro­ce­dure and process­es rec­om­mend­ed in the report,” said Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy direc­tor of the Army Health Pro­mo­tion, Risk Reduc­tion Coun­cil and Task Force. 

“Our efforts con­tin­ue to evolve as we learn more about the mul­ti­ple fac­tors con­tribut­ing to sui­cides and high-risk behav­ior with­in our Army fam­i­ly. The end state remains the abil­i­ty to pro­vide our sol­diers, civil­ians and fam­i­lies with the qual­i­ty care and sup­port they need and deserve,” Philbrick said. 

Sol­diers and fam­i­lies in need of cri­sis assis­tance can con­tact Mil­i­tary One­Source or the Defense Cen­ter of Excel­lence (DCoE) for Psy­cho­log­i­cal Health and Trau­mat­ic Brain Injury Out­reach Cen­ter. Trained con­sul­tants are avail­able from both orga­ni­za­tions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. 

The Mil­i­tary One­Source toll-free num­ber for those resid­ing in the con­ti­nen­tal Unit­ed States is 1–800-342‑9647; their Web site address is http://www.militaryonesource.com . Over­seas per­son­nel should refer to the Mil­i­tary One­Source Web site for dial­ing instruc­tions for their spe­cif­ic location. 

The Army’s com­pre­hen­sive list of Sui­cide Pre­ven­tion Pro­gram infor­ma­tion is locat­ed at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/default.asp .

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

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter