USAREUR will participate in suicide prevention effort

[unhappycamper]

USAREUR will participate in suicide prevention effort
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, February 26, 2009

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Units all across U.S. Army Europe will be taking time off from regular tasks and training to talk about suicide, and how to prevent it.

Through March 15, USAREUR units will be part of an Armywide "stand down" for suicide prevention. The effort includes training organized by unit leadership, augmented by a chaplain or mental health provider, if requested.

Each unit will schedule its own "stand-down day," according to a U.S. Army Europe press release.

The stand down comes after suicides in the Army rose for the fourth year in a row. According to the Army, there were 128 confirmed suicides last year — and 15 more probable suicides still being investigated, up from 115 in 2007.

Gen. Pete Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, was appointed to start a servicewide suicide prevention effort after the numbers were released. Chiarelli said then that the reasons why the number of soldier suicides continued to rise was unknown.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60988




uhc comment: "the reasons why the number of soldier suicides continued to rise was unknown"? How about repeated deployments? How about abbreviated dwell times? How about combat trauma? How about PTSD or TBI? Is depleted uranium poisoning a part of this?

It seems to me that these guys have learned absolutely nothing from Vietnam.

[Solly Mack]

1. We had another one last week. A soldier hanged himself.

I fall under USAREUR.

[unhappycamper]

2. Did I post that?

I know it seems like a stupid question, but there's a lot of stuff from the military rags.

[Solly Mack]

3. No

Check PM

[Solly Mack]

4. Just to let you know....

We had an attempt today. This puts us up to 2 suicides and 4 attempts so far this year.

Today it was a spouse.