Army: Up to 12 active-duty suicides in January - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Army: Up to 12 active-duty suicides in January

As many as 12 active-duty soldiers killed themselves in January, the Army announced Wednesday.

Of the 12, one death has been confirmed as suicide while the other 11 remain under investigation.

January’s total is two more than the 10 deaths reported in December. Of those 10, three have been confirmed, while the others remain under investigation.

Among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty during the time of their deaths, as many as 15 soldiers are believed to have killed themselves in January. That’s more than twice the seven suspected suicides in December. Five of the seven deaths in December have since been confirmed as suicides.

The January deaths come after a year when the Army suffered as many as 160 active-duty soldier suicides. The number in 2009 was the highest rate the Army has seen in 30 years, and it marked five consecutive years of increasing suicide numbers.

The growing number of suicides led the Army to hone in on suicide prevention, tasking Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli to lead the service’s efforts.

“In the new year, we won’t just maintain our current focus on suicide prevention, we’re going to sharpen that focus,” said Col. Christopher Philbrick, director of the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force. “Over the last year you could describe our Army effort as shining a flood light on the problem of suicide. Now in 2010 we’re going to move from a flood light to a laser light, identifying our most effective programs so we can target and reinforce what’s working and fix what isn’t.”