Even though the military has almost 900 suicide prevention programs at 400 installations around the globe, that system isn’t working to stop suicides by soldiers, according to a congressional report released this week.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/24/AR2010082406361.html
As suicides in the service are reaching an all-time high, the military needs better strategic planning at its suicide prevention programs, a task force created last year by Congress reported.
The report made 76 recommendations to Defense Secretary David Gates, with one of the main ones being that the Pentagon start an office to develop strategy and coordinate all the programs that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps have, according to the Associated Press.
The repeated tours that the Army and Marines have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have token a high toll on our troops, with high suicide rates in those outfits. From 2005 to 2009 more than 1,100 members of the services habve taken their own lives.
The report was done by a panel of 14 civilian and military doctors and civilians who have been involved in suicide.
“The task force commends the armed forces for the suicide prevention initiatives it has undertaken and knows of no other employer that has focused as much attention and resources on suicide prevention,” the report said.
But it added that even with that effort, the disparate suicide prevention programs “could benefit from re-engineering” and coordination.