Army Suicides Trending Upward for 2009

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The Army yesterday released its monthly report on suicides, reporting that while there were no confirmed suicides among active-duty troops for June there are nine deaths still under investigation.

So far this year there have been 88 reported suicides in among active-duty troops, officials said, of which 54 have been confirmed. The Army is still looking into the other 34.

Should that number bear out the Army will have surpassed the total number of active-duty suicides for the same period last year by more than 20. For the first six months of 2008, officials said in the report, there were 67 confirmed suicides in the active-duty Army.

Among Reserve troops the trend also may be upwards, based on the Army's latest figures.

So far this year there have been 16 confirmed suicides in that component, and 23 other deaths remain under investigation as possible suicides. Between January and June 2008 there were 29 confirmed suicides among Reserve troops not on active duty, the Army said.

Testifying in March before the Senate Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, Army Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli attributed the spiking suicide rate to continued long deployments.

"We must find ways to relieve some of this stress," Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, said in testimony reported by CNN. "I think it is the cumulative effect of deployments from 12 to 15 months."

Brig. Gen. Colleen McGuire, director of Army Suicide Prevention Task Force, said in a press release issued yesterday that every Soldier suicide i"s different and tragic in its own way.

“Our current research and prevention efforts are identifying common denominators that lead Soldiers to take their own life.  It’s often a combination of many factors that overwhelm an individual."

What the Army does know right now is that Soldiers most at risk of suicide are men in combat-arms specialties between the ages of 18 and 27, according to McGuire. The Army is looking at existing suicide prevention programs and other "institutional safety nets" to see what works and what needs to be changed to make them more effective, she said.

The Army is currently wrapping up the second phase of a three-phase service-wide program intended to reduce suicides. The first and second phases included interactive training programs and small-unit leader training. The final part of the program will include sustained annual suicide prevention training for all troops. The training will emphasize common causes of suicidal behavior and the critical role Army leaders, friends, co-workers and families play in maintaining behavioral health, according to the Army press release.

The Army’s most current suicide prevention information may be found at: http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/.