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Suicide spike perplexing and difficult
February 26th, 2009 | AUSA Winter 2009 | Posted by Michelle Tan
The spike in soldier suicides is an issue that claims much of Gen. Peter Chiarelli’s time and efforts, he said Thursday.
“This suicide thing is something right now that is absolutely eating up my time, and it’s taken every bit of 36 years of experience in the United States Army to figure out how to reverse,” the Army vice chief of staff said. “This is a very serious problem, and it’s impacting every segment of our force.”
The death of any soldier is tragic, he said, but “when it happens as a result of suicide, it’s particularly disturbing.”
The increase in suicides – 2008 was the fourth year in a row that the number of suicides in the Army has increased – is perplexing and difficult.
“You would think you can apply this to soldiers who have been on multiple deployments,” he said.
But looking at the data, soldiers are “less likely to commit suicide if in fact you’ve had multiple deployments,” he said. “There seems to be a resiliency that develops among soldiers. As I look deeper and deeper into the statistics, none of the things that you would think would be the reason this is happening is popping up on top of the radar screen.”
Suicide prevention is a top priority for Army leaders, and it can be as basic as taking time to ask your buddy if he’s OK and making sure he gets the help he needs, he said.
“I honestly believe that if we get back to doing those things that we’ve done so well in the Army for so long, I think we can reverse this trend,” he said.
Tags: deployments, suicide, Vice Chief