Kaiserslautern community report to Army details needs

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Kaiserslautern community report to Army details needs
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, November 11, 2009

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Army suicide rates are on the rise and there’s no overseas suicide prevention hot line for at-risk soldiers, civilians and family members, a glaring shortcoming in services that needs to be fixed, according to delegates at the U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern’s recent Army Family Action Plan conference.

The need to fund and staff a 24-hour overseas suicide prevention hot line that mirrors the current sexual assault response program was one of the top issues identified at the annual conference, held late last month at Daenner Kaserne in Kaiserslautern.

“With the Army having such a huge push on suicide prevention, that’s a hole that hasn’t been filled. There isn’t a hot line here,” said Olivia Gairy, the garrison’s AFAP program manager.

About 70 soldiers, airmen, civilians and family members brainstormed ways to improve their communities’ quality of life at the three-day conference, selecting 21 issues that might eventually reach the desktops of senior Army leaders at the Pentagon.

The garrison will form a committee of various agency representatives to review the issues and determine if they are ones best handled locally or should be forwarded up through the Army chain of command, Gairy said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66020