Guard, Reserve suicide rate sees big spike - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Guard, Reserve suicide rate sees big spike

Army officials continue to struggle to figure out why soldiers — especially the service’s citizen soldiers — keep committing suicide in record numbers, as 2010 was the sixth consecutive year the Army’s suicide rate increased.

Despite the rise, there was some progress: The active-duty suicide rate dropped slightly, but the number of suicides in the Guard and Reserve increased sharply.

In 2010, the number of suicides increased by 59, from 242 to 301, an increase of 24.4 percent. Almost twice as many guardsmen and reservists committed suicide — 145 in 2010, 80 in 2009 — as the year before. Among the active-duty force, 156 soldiers committed suicide in 2010, down from 162 in 2009.

Since 2005, 975 soldiers have committed suicide, and the Army continues to study why soldiers commit suicide and to launch prevention programs to stop it.

Deployments not the only reason

Blaming only deployments and time away from families for the increases would be incorrect, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli said.

“If you think you know the one thing that causes people to commit suicide, please let us know,” he said, “because we don't know what it is.”

Of 112 guardsmen who killed themselves in 2010, more than half had not deployed.

Officials also said unemployment was not a common theme among Guardsmen and Reservists who committed suicide. About 85 percent of the guardsmen and more than half of the reservists who killed themselves had jobs, said Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, the Army National Guard’s acting director.

Carpenter said the Guard is a snapshot of society and experiencing an increased suicide rate much like the rest of the nation.

“We are the canary in the mineshaft, especially the Guard, because we recruit in communities and are a reflection of those communities,” he said.

The reduction in active-duty suicides shows progress, Chiarelli said. He attributed the decrease partly to the stand-up of the service’s Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention Council and Task Force in 2009, and the programs and policy changes it’s instituted.

More soldiers are using the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program, and the Pain Management Task Force is monitoring the increased use of pain medication, specifically anti-anxiety drugs by soldiers, Chiarelli said. He added that more soldiers received face-to-face post-deployment behavioral health screenings.

Getting resources to part-time soldiers

Chiarelli admitted the Army has a tougher time getting the word out to reservists and guardsmen about suicide prevention programs. These soldiers have less contact with commanders and often report to their units only once a month.

Guardsmen and reservists often live in one state and are attached to units hundreds of miles away.

“I’ve got soldiers who may live in Georgia but they belong to a unit in Tennessee, so they travel a significant distance,” said Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, chief of Army Reserves. “Having a link to them in the other 28 days of the month when they’re not there with the unit is a challenge.”

Stultz also wants more suicide prevention training for soldiers’ families. Too often not enough focus is placed on reducing the stigma for family members to reach out to their soldier’s commander or first sergeants and ask for help, he said.

“It’s that family that’s with the soldier the other 28 days of the month,” Stultz said. “And they’re the ones that start to see those signs, that high-risk behavior and other things.”

Service officials are focusing more attention on the needs of guardsmen and reservists. When the task force stood up in 2009, the focus was on active-duty soldiers and many of the products it produced were “one-size-fits-all,” said Col. Chris Philbrick, the task force’s deputy commander.

As Reserve and Guard leaders saw suicide rates climb this year, Army officials changed their approach and started creating Reserve- and Guard-based suicide prevention tools and programs.

Philbrick and other Army officials said they expect to see the Guard and Reserve suicide rate decline as programs have time to reach soldiers.

“Our challenge in the year ahead is to keep building upon the initial progress made in the active component,” Chiarelli said. “We’ll continue in our efforts to replicate that progress in the reserve component, primarily by expanding the reach and accessibility of the programs and services that are positively impacting the lives of soldiers serving on active duty.”