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Stemming an epidemic of suicides among the ranks will require the armed services to implement a host of major changes in policies and programs that affect virtually every aspect of day-to-day life, a panel of experts believe.
Acting under a congressional directive, the nine-member Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) spent nearly a year reviewing the ways the Defense Department and individual armed services addressed suicide prevention and response. Mental-health services, epidemiology, sexual assault, lethal means safety, support services for both service members and families, and civilian employment all garnered the panel’s attention.
“Most importantly, the SPRIRC met with thousands of service members, military family members, and civilian support and service providers at nine military installations representing all U.S. Armed Services” at both stateside and overseas locations, the panel’s newly released final report stated.
The panel stressed the importance of “a multifactorial approach” that considers the sheer complexity of the suicide issue, adding that “simple or singular strategies will not work.”
The report’s recommendations fell into high, moderate and low categories. Among the highest:
• Creation of a task force charged with modernization and reformation of the military promotion system, so that the right people are selected to fill the right jobs and the right time.
• Elimination of legal and bureaucratic barriers to efficient hiring and onboarding.
• Centralization of responsibility for the core suicide prevention activities that are common to all of the services.
• Modernization of the entire spectrum of suicide-prevention education, across the entire career cycle.
• Separation of training for different audiences, for intended effect.
• Delivery of training to small groups of similar rank and position.
• Determining if some investigations and offenses are associated with increased suicide. If such is the case, the Defense Department should forge policies that require trained behavioral health professionals to be present when subjects are notified about such an offense.
• Significant change to the law and policies that address all aspects of possession of privately owned firearms or weapons.
• Establishment of department-approved firearm safety training requirements.
• Implementation of a seven-day waiting period for firearms that are purchased on Defense Department property.
• Requirements that anyone living on defense department property register privately owned firearms and store them in a securely locked safe.
• Restriction of firearms possession in military barracks and dormitories.
• Setting duty schedules that allow for at least eight hours’ sleep and minimize shift-change frequency.
• Inclusion of counseling about excessive alcohol use in all safety-related trainings, to include those related to suicide prevention and sexual-harassment mitigation.
• An inspector general’s review of unpaid and delayed payments to service members and their families, with recommendations to improve efficiency.
• Resolution of the issue of delays in pay.
• Elimination of budgetary limitations that prevent the services from increasing incentive pays and retention bonuses for Defense Department behavioral health clinicians. The hiring process for these professionals should be expedited as well.
• Training behavioral health technicians in TRICARE and elsewhere in evidence-based suicide prevention treatments.
• Ensurance that TRICARE behavioral health providers are paid “as directed by TRICARE policy.”
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See also, One More Day
OneMoreDay is an Idaho-based non-profit providing suicide prevention programs to the military, LEO and Veterans.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OneMoreDay
Website: https://suicide-prevention.org/
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