Wyo. National Guard Gets Stress Training (Combating Suicides)

By JAMES CHILTON 

Wyoming Tribune Eagle

Published: September 2, 2012

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The Wyoming Army National Guard is arming its troops with a new weapon: a skills set to cope with the stresses of military life.

According to media reports, suicides in the Army have outnumbered combat deaths this year. That statistic serves as a stirring reminder of the importance of not only post-traumatic support but of proper mental and emotional conditioning, said Lt. Col. Samuel E. House of the Wyoming Guard.

"Military suicides have long been an issue within the military," House said. "The idea behind resilience training is to minimize that - as well as address other issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Army has offered resilience training, formerly called "battle-mind training" for several years. But, House said, it was only recently that the Army began to mandate that specific numbers of troops go through it.

Those troops, he said, can then use the lessons they've learned to help other soldiers cope with the day-to-day stresses of military life, such as the disconnect that can sometimes occur between military and civilian life.

"It's designed to look at the cultural aspect of it, not just the combat piece of it," House said. "There are just as many suicides among those who have deployed versus those who have not deployed. Marital problems, it's the same thing."

It's not uncommon for soldiers to assume a pessimistic disposition, whether it's due to the violence they witness overseas or whether they're coping with being separated from family and loved ones, House tells the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

Others can cope with military life but may have a hard time readjusting to civilian life, where responsibilities and expectations may be different than previously.

"Individuals who have done their four years or eight years or 20 years, it's interesting to see: Some people get out and go off and are very successful, other individuals, it's all they know," he said. "Particularly within the National Guard, before you deploy you have those (civilian and familial) responsibilities. Then you deploy and for the first two or three months, you feel like you need to be a part of the things at home."

While many soldiers are eventually able to accept their new roles, House said once they do return, they have to adjust to family life all over again.

At the same time, a soldier's spouse may have settled into his or her own new routine, which they then have to alter once the soldier returns home.

For that reason, one of the big focuses of the resilience training is getting soldiers to consider more than just the worst-case scenario.

All too often, House said, some soldiers may assume they're being cheated on or left behind.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.stripes.com/news/wyo-national-guard-gets-stress-training-1.187787

New Study: U.S. Military Suicide Rate Now Likely Double or Triple Civil War’s

Can medical data from the U.S. Civil War help us better understand military suicides?

Your recent Time cover story in the July 23 issue detailed the tragic facts that suicide rates among active-duty U.S. military personnel rose dramatically over the past decade. Military suicide rates doubled between 2001 and 2006, while remaining flat in the general population, with more military fatalities attributed to suicide than to actual combat in Afghanistan during that period.

To make matters worse, we do not understand why. Stressors related to military training, overseas deployment, transition back to civilian life, and combat are widely believed to be major driving factors. However, 31% of soldiers who committed suicide had never been deployed to a war zone. Furthermore, suicide rates in British military forces have also increased recently, though to a lesser degree, and do not exceed the rate of the general population.

Is there a lack of historical context?

Compounding our inability to understand this current phenomenon is the lack of adequate historical data to provide context on whether high suicide rates were typical of prior wars. Review of archival records from past wars might help shed some light on the current military suicide epidemic.

In a recent study (Frueh & Smith, 2012) we reviewed historical medical records on suicide deaths among Union forces during the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), a brutal war that many consider the first modern one, and for the year immediately after the war to estimate the suicide rate among its Union combatants. We also reviewed these same historical records for data on rates of alcohol abuse and other probable psychiatric illnesses.

White active-duty Union military personnel suicide rates ranged from 8.74 – 14.54 per 100,000 during the Civil War, and surged to 30.4 the year after the war. For black Union troops, rates ranged from 17.7 in the first year of their entry into the war (1863), to 0 in their second year, and 1.8 in the year after the war.

For comparison, the current rate of U.S. military suicides is just over 20 per 100,000 troops. To further put these figures into current context, there were more military suicides in 2010 (total suicides = 295), than during the entire four years of the Civil War, for which we found 278 documented Union suicides, and forces were of comparable size.

Thus, current suicide rates in the U.S. military are probably two to three times higher than those documented during the Civil War. Rates for other available psychological domains, including chronic alcoholism, “nostalgia,” and insanity, were extremely low (< 1.0%) by modern day standards during the Civil War.

Of course, we should interpret data from the U.S. Civil War cautiously, not simply because of its age, but because medicine and society in the 1860s were psychologically naïve. There was almost no awareness or understanding of mental illness then. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), now understood to be a common post-combat reaction did not exist in the medical literature at the time. Moreover, it is possible (but by no means certain) that the stigma of suicide and psychological problems may have biased against reporting.

What about combat intensity?

As noted by preeminent Harvard psychologist, Richard J. McNally (2012), these Civil War findings occurred within the context of extremely intense combat operations. In reviewing historical data on rates of killed in action, he notes that the death rate for Union forces during the Civil War was 48 times higher than for modern U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And yet, emotional problems and disability (from many different causes) has risen dramatically among U.S. military personnel and veterans, even since the Vietnam war.

READ MORE: http://ti.me/N07LOy

Army Conducts Largest Mental Health Study

12th Public Affairs Detachment  
Story by Sgt. Joshua Holt


CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – The Army Study To Assess Risk and Resilience in Service members research team is currently conducting a study to better understand the risks and factors associated with mental health, stress and suicide.

The Army STARRS research study is a partnership between The National Institute of Mental Health and the U.S. Army to identify the factors that may pose risks to soldiers’ emotional well-being and overall mental health.

“It’s the largest study of mental health risk and resilience that the military has ever conducted,” said Dr. Kevin Quinn, medical psychologist, NIMH program officer, Army STARRS. “We want to understand what might put a soldier at risk or what might make a soldier resilient to things that can increase or decrease the potential for suicide.”

“What we need to do, and what the study is designed to do is to contact a lot of soldiers,” said Quinn. “We’re on track with all the studies to have interviewed or surveyed 100,000 soldiers.”

The team assembled by NIMH includes participants from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, University of California, San Diego, University of Michigan, Harvard Medical School, NIMH and Army staff members.

The research will help the Army understand risks and factors of suicide, said Quinn. The rate of suicide has risen over the past five to seven years, but it is still an exceedingly rare event.

The study is designed to provide basic data to help aid other organizations studying prevention and risks associated with suicide, Quinn said.

Researchers look at the participant’s entire life, not just their military career.

“The basic component that’s involved in the majority of all the studies is the survey,” said Quinn. “We might look at the kinds of experiences that a soldier may have in the past before they ever entered the Army.”

The study will examine several different factors of the soldier’s life including: stress, deployments, exposures to trauma, family and personal history and demographics.

The survey can be taken in two different formats: a paper-and-pencil version and a computerized version. The method of testing would be determined by the research staff based on the location of the personnel being surveyed and the materials and equipment available.

Read more: http://www.dvidshub.net/news/92706/army-conducts-largest-mental-health-study#ixzz22tVUsVQx 

Help for Veterans and Their Families: National Institute of Mental Health’s “Outreach Partnership Program”

The National Institute of Mental Health’s “Outreach Partnership Program” has made information available to veterans and their families who have concerns about depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other behavioral health problems. The information in this article comes from that resource.

Depression interferes with daily life, and even though each person may experience depression in a unique way, there are some signs and symptoms that one should be aware of, including:

• Persistent sad, anxious, or empty feelings
• Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
• Irritability and restlessness
• Loss of interest in activities or hobbies that one once found enjoyable/pleasant/fulfilling
• Fatigue or decreased energy
• Difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions
• Sleep disturbance of one kind or another (like insomnia, too much sleep, or early morning wakening)
• Eating problems: eating too much or a loss of ones appetite
• Thoughts of suicide, or suicide attempts
• Aches, pains, headaches, cramps or digestive problems that do not respond to medical treatment

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is not uncommon among returning veterans. When the following signs and symptoms last longer than a few weeks, one may be experiencing PTSD:

• Flashbacks
• Bad dreams
• Frightening thoughts
• Avoiding places/events/objects that are reminders of the experience
• Feeling emotionally numb
• Strong guilt, depression, or worry
• Losing interest in activities that were once enjoyable
• Having trouble remembering the dangerous or traumatic event
• Being easily startled
• Feeling tense or “on the edge”
• Sleep disturbance
• Outbursts of anger
• "Drinking" to forget

SELF TESTS FOR PTSD, DEPRESSION & MORE AVAILABLE HERE:

• https://www.vetselfcheck.org/welcome.cfm

• https://www.myhealth.va.gov/mhv-portal-web/anonymous.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=mentalHealth&contentPage=mh_screening_tools/PTSD_SCREENING.HTML

• https://www.myhealth.va.gov/mhv-portal-web/anonymous.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=mentalHealth&contentPage=mh_screening_tools/PHQ_SCREENING.HTML

Many veterans have a difficult time adjusting to life back home after they’ve been deployed. Behavioral health services can help. 

Help is available 24 hours a day, every day 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1

 or 

Send a text message to 838255 to receive confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year

or

Chat Online 24/7 here: Veterans Chat

If you are in immediate need of help and do not want to use the above please CALL 911

Here are some websites where reading material on PTSD, depression, anxiety, and related subjects may be obtained:

http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/

http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/Resources.asp

www.nimh.nih.gov

www.nami.org

One A Day: Military Suicides

What Do You Think?: McChrystal Says it's Time to Bring Back the Draft

By JOSH ROGIN

Foreign Policy

Published: July 6, 2012

Retired Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal

COURTESY OF THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

WASHINGTON — Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander of international forces in Afghanistan, said this week that the United States should bring back the draft if it ever goes to war again.

"I think we ought to have a draft. I think if a nation goes to war, it shouldn't be solely be represented by a professional force, because it gets to be unrepresentative of the population," McChrystal said at a late-night event June 29 at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival. "I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk. You make that decision and everybody has skin in the game."

He argued that the burdens of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't been properly shared across the U.S. population, and emphasized that the U.S. military could train draftees so that there wouldn't be a loss of effectiveness in the war effort.

"I've enjoyed the benefits of a professional service, but I think we'd be better if we actually went to a draft these days," he said. "There would some loss of professionalism, but for the nation it would be a better course."

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq placed unfair and extreme burdens on the professional military, especially reservists, and their families, McChrystal said.

"We've never done that in the United State before; we've never fought an extended war with an all- volunteer military. So what it means is you've got a very small population that you're going to, and you're going to it over and over again," he said. "Because it's less than one percent of the population . . . people are very supportive but they don't have the same connection to it."

Reservists following multiple deployments have trouble maintaining careers and families and have a "frighteningly high" rate of suicide, he said.

"The reserve structure is designed for major war, you fight and then you stop, but what we've done instead is gone back over and over to the same people," he said. "We're going to have to relook the whole model because I don't think we can do this again."....

READ MORE HERE:  http://www.stripes.com/news/army/mcchrystal-says-it-s-time-to-bring-back-the-draft-1.182321

Fort Bragg Soldier's Story Shows Why Preventing Military Suicides is a 'Frustrating Challenge'

By GREG BARNES 

The Fayetteville Observer

Published: July 9, 2012

Fayetteville, N.C.— At 3:37 a.m. on May 19, Fort Bragg Pvt. Eric Watson sent a text message to his mother:

"I love you mom. I just can't take living anymore and I'm so sorry. I will always be with you."

The message set off a flurry of texts between Watson and his mother, Angela Moore, who said she tried to keep her son on the phone until she could get someone to check on him.

Watson, who Moore said had tried to overdose on pills and alcohol, was found in time.

Watson's story provides insight into how far the military has come in helping mentally ill soldiers, even as too many continue to slip through cracks in the system.

At the same time, the fact that Watson ended up in the Cumberland County Detention Center three days after his suicide attempt -- where jailers weren't even told to put him on suicide watch -- raises questions about Fort Bragg's handling of his problems.

Military suicides are soaring.

According to an Associated Press analysis, from the first of the year to June 3, suicides among active-duty U.S. military service members averaged nearly one per day. The 154 suicides represent the highest rate since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began a decade ago and an 18 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

Researchers say the protracted wars, with long and multiple deployments, have put stress on the troops like never before. Studies show that at least one soldier in five comes home with post-traumatic stress disorder. Many suffer from traumatic brain injuries and alcohol and drug abuse.

Suicide is a problem the military is confronting head on.

At a major three-day conference in June on addressing military suicides, Leon Panetta called them "perhaps the most frustrating challenge that I have come across since becoming secretary of defense last year. Despite the increased efforts, the increased attention, the trends continue to move in a troubling and tragic direction."

Another speaker at the conference -- a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs -- was Dr. Robert Petzel, the VA's undersecretary for health.

"The reality," he said, "is suicide prevention is an extremely complex and difficult task."

Petzel nonetheless believes that there should be a "zero tolerance" policy for suicides.

"We will do everything we can because we will not tolerate a single suicide among people we care for," he said.

And the military and VA are doing more each year.

The military has introduced a national suicide hotline and myriad programs aimed at assisting soldiers in crisis and reducing the stigma attached to getting help.

Still, soldiers keep dying by their own hands.

A case could be made that Pvt. Watson should never have been in the military. When he was 16, his parents said, he got drunk at a party and harmed himself. The incident resulted in a stay at a mental health center.

But privacy laws keep the military from digging into past mental health issues, and Watson's recruiter, Jeffrey Sessoms of Jacksonville, said Watson never mentioned his problems.

Watson is now 24. Angela Moore says deployment damaged her son. He got home in October after a year in Iraq, she said.

"He was really distant, and any little thing, he would just go off," Moore said. "He didn't want to tell me nothing they dealt with over there. We are super close, so I knew something was wrong. ... It's just like he snaps for no reason. He'll scream, he'll hit, punch walls. I've seen him hit his car before."

She thinks her son's commanders at Fort Bragg could have given him more help, more protection, when he returned from Iraq showing problems.

But Fort Bragg did try to help Watson, who is a member of the 18th Airborne's Corps' 8th Ordnance Company.

In February, Moore said, the post sent her son to a substance-abuse treatment clinic in Alabama.

After his release, she said, Watson returned to Fort Bragg and quickly found himself in more trouble. He threatened to desert and to kill himself, so he was sent in March to a mental health center in Winston-Salem, where he stayed for two weeks.

When he again returned to Fort Bragg, he was restricted to the post for 45 days and put back on work detail, Moore said.

"They just threw him back out there," she said.....

READ MORE HERE:http://www.stripes.com/news/us/fort-bragg-soldier-s-story-shows-why-preventing-military-suicides-is-a-frustrating-challenge-1.182497?localLinksEnabled=false&utm_source=Stars+and+Stripes+Emails&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines&utm_medium=email