A Series of Suicides Unnerves West Point

[babylonsister]

A Series of Suicides Unnerves West Point

James Estrin/The New York Times

The campus at West Point by night. A series of suicides and attempted suicides among staff members and students have rattled the military academy.

By LISA W. FODERARO
Published: February 21, 2009


WEST POINT, N.Y. — It is called “the gloom period,” when the pewter skies seem to mirror the gray fortresslike buildings on campus, and cadets hustle from class to class to avoid the cold winds whipping off the Hudson River.

But this winter, the somber mood at the United States Military Academy has been deepened by two recent suicides among the 4,400 cadets — the first since 1999 — as well as two suicide attempts last month. Those followed two suicides last summer by staff members, and come as the Army is grappling with a record number of suicides among its members, many of whom have endured long deployments to war zones.

Last week, the academy — where the Army trains its future leaders and admission is highly prized — began a “stand down,” 30-day suicide-prevention program with an Army-wide training session that includes a new interactive video. It depicts a suicidal soldier and choices he confronts as he spirals downward: One set of choices leads to improved mental health, the other to tragedy.

For example, the soldier struggles with suicidal thoughts after receiving a “Dear John” e-mail message from his pregnant fiancée, who later tells him that the father is the soldier’s high school friend, who has also raided his bank account. The soldier debates whether to seek help, worrying that he will appear weak or invite ridicule.

“You’ve got cadets here, they don’t want anything to stand in the way of their graduation,” said Col. John Cook, West Point’s chaplain, as he tried to relate the video’s lessons to the campus. “We have got to get beyond this whole issue of stigma.”

Officials said that the number of cadets seeking psychiatric help had increased in the past few years, and that some had sought counseling in recent weeks.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/nyregion/22west.html?_r=2&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&partner=rss

[SheilaT]

1. My first thought is

how does this number of suicides stack up against suicides in the general population of people in that same age group? I can't even begin to speculate whether it's more or less, but certainly any institution like that is a closed community, and so any dramatic adverse events will have a very strong impact.

The service academies are very tough institutions and the young people there are very ambitious, which may also be a factor here.