Cmdr. Janet Hawkins

As we continue to watch the number of suicides among military members increase at an unprecedented rate, we must also step up all efforts to educate and prevent future suicides. Taking care of our servicemembers calls for enhanced efforts throughout the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, and the community. We’re all in this fight together – as we bring our servicemembers home safe, we want to keep them safe.

As the chair of the Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee (SPARRC), I am proud to have the opportunity to lead a federal and non-federal collaborative effort to examine military suicide, standardize reporting and develop future prevention initiatives with experts in the field. SPARRC includes representatives from across the armed forces and military service suicide prevention programs – Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy and National Guard. We are all learning from each other—sharing lessons learned and best practices about suicide prevention. I encourage you to check out the service-specific suicide prevention resources that are available to you.

Continue reading Cmdr. Janet Hawkins’ post on Navy Live.

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“I am an airman, sailor, soldier, Marine, Coast Guardsman. I am a mentor, comrade, friend, loved one...”

The “A Creed for a Comrade” video demonstrates that we all have an important role to play in providing support to those who need help.

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Personal and relationship issues, legal and financial worries, and job-related stress are the leading contributing factors linked to suicides. Take the opportunity this month, especially, to educate yourself and others with helpful facts surrounding suicide prevention.

Be aware of the Warning Signs for Suicide:

• Threatening or talking about wanting to hurt or kill oneself
• Looking for ways to kill oneself by seeking access to firearms, available pills or other means
• Talking or writing about death, dying or suicide when these actions are out of the ordinary for the person
• Feeling hopeless
• Feeling rage or uncontrolled anger or seeking revenge
• Acting reckless or engaging in risky activities - seemingly without thinking
• Feeling trapped - like there's no way out

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Another breakout session featured at the 2010 Suicide Prevention Conference was a lively and informative session centered on New and Social Media titled Harnessing New and Social Media to Prevent Suicide. The goal of the conversation was to understand how social media can serve as a powerful means to prevent suicide and the discussion began with a simple question:

What is Social Media?

Social Media is defined as an online set of tools that allows anyone with basic computer skills to tell their stories using the internet to create a shared community experience both online and in-person. Online social media forums can be found such as:

• Blogs Example: DCoE Blog
• Networking sites Example: DCoE Facebook Page
• Videos Example: You Tube
• Photo Sharing Example: Flickr
• Wikis Example: Wikipedia

Shared online communities contain a group of people with common interests who connect online to: learn, play, work, organize and socialize. Online communities like those connected with suicide prevention can galvanize large or small groups of survivors, friends, families, researchers and educators locally or around the globe into a unified conversation to share important information and create supportive relationships.

Statistically, social media is proving to be a relevant tool, not a passing fad, which is used to provide health information to support suicide prevention efforts.

• Over 8 million online users seek health information daily and half of those people are searching for information for a friend or family member
• 23% of Internet users are searching for mental health information
• 35% of adults have profiles on social networking sites

Recent examples of online suicide prevention conversations were highlighted. The most prominent example of suicide prevention was the case of a British teenager who was saved by a friend on Facebook when he threatened suicide. Other examples supported how social media creates a community where users take care of each other.

Panel speakers Eileen Zeller, MPH, SAMHSA; Kenneth Norton, LICSW, National Alliance on Mental Illness New Hampshire; and LTC Ashleah Bechtel, Army National Guard moved the conversation to showcase online prevention efforts.

Resource highlights included:

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
• Army OneSource
• Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury

As Social Media continues to move mainstream so can the conversation on suicide prevention in order to educate, inform and create understanding.

*Videos from the conference will soon be posted. Be sure to check out the Suicide Prevention Conference stories in our next DCoE in Action.

* Continue the conversation. DCoE’s just launched a new Twitter page, become a follower today.

The Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) hosted an important breakout session last week at our 2010 Suicide Prevention Conference called “Suicide Prevention: A National Resource for a National Imperative.”

The session was one of over twenty conference breakout sessions on topics ranging from “Safety Planning in Care of Suicidal Veterans,” to “Training in the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicide” to “The Role of Law Enforcement in Preventing Suicide.” We’ll be posting all presentations online, so please stay tuned. It is likely you’ll find a presentation useful for your perspective.

Founded in 2002, the SPRC is the only federally funded suicide prevention resource center. Born out of a need to move suicide into the public health arena, SPRC approaches suicide as a preventable public health problem and looks to create a national dialogue in which suicide is viewed as a pivotal issue that needs to be taken seriously because it afflicts all demographics.

Important suicide facts include:

• Every 17 minutes another life is lost to suicide
• For every two victims of homicide in the U.S. there are three deaths from suicide
• Suicide takes the lives of more than 30,00 Americans ever year
• Between 1952 and 1995, the incidence of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled

SPRC works to provide prevention support, training and informational resources geared for multiple audiences including:

• The general public
• Health and human service professionals
• Community leaders
• Researchers
• Survivors
• Advocates
• Policymakers

Supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, SPRC develops programs, interventions and policies to prevent suicide at the national, tribal, state, territorial, campus and community levels.

Pivotal resources the SPRC website offers include:

• Prevention support
• Best practices for suicide prevention programs and practices
• Training institute
• Online library
• Tool-kits
• Research information
• Free e-newsletter, The Spark

Employing a national strategy, the SPRC works to bring groups and individuals together to work side by side in the ongoing battle to prevent suicide.