Author: Department of the Army
Publisher:
Published: 2009-12-17
Total Pages: 50
ISBN-13: 9781463603373
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The Army Suicide Prevention Program (ASPP), a proponent of Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1 (DCS, G-1), has an Army-wide commitment to provide resources for suicide intervention skills, prevention, and follow-up in an effort to reduce the occurrence of suicidal behavior across the Army enterprise. The ASPP develops initiatives to tailor and target policies, programs, and training in order to mitigate risk and behavior associated with suicide. A function of the ASPP is to track demographic data on suicidal behaviorsto assist Army leaders in the identification of trends. The goal is to minimize suicidal behavior by reducing the risk of suicide for Active Army and Reserve Component Soldiers, Army DA civilians, and Army Family members. The ASPP establishes a community approach to reduce Army suicides through the function of the Community Health Promotion Councils (CHPC). The CHPC integrates multidisciplinary capabilities to assist commanders in implementing local suicide-prevention programs, and establishes the importance of early identification of, and intervention with problems that detract from personal and unit readiness. The ASPP has 3 principle phases or categories of activities to mitigate the risk and impact of suicidal behaviors; prevention, intervention, and postvention. The ASPP Program Manager shall also serve as a member of the Department of Defense (DOD) Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee and subcommittees to ensure the ASPP is nested with the Defense Community of Excellence (DCoE) suicide prevention efforts. The Office of the Surgeon General (OTSG), ICW CHPCs will develop a specific plan to provide commanders additional guidance on ensuring at risk medications are tracked and medical peer review is completed through quality assurance. Guidance will provide commanders information on how to- (1) Inform commanders on how to track at risk medications when the health care provider (HCP) or pharmacy will not release their medication information. (2) Determine how the Army will track medication filled by an outside DOD medical pharmacy. Prevention focuses on preventing normal life "stressors" from turning into life crises. "Prevention Programming" focuses on equipping the Soldier, Family member, and Army DA civilian with coping skills to handle overwhelming life circumstances. Prevention includes early screening to establish baseline mental health and to offer specific remedial programs before dysfunctional behavior occurs. Prevention is dependent upon caring and proactive unit leaders and managers who make the effort to know their personnel, including estimating their ability to handle stress, and who offer a positive, cohesive environment which nurtures, and develops positive life-coping skills. These "gatekeepers" serve as the first line of defense to mitigate risk (See glossary for "gatekeeper" explanation).Intervention attempts to prevent a life crisis or mental disorder from leading to thoughts of suicide, to help someone manage suicidal thoughts and takes action to intervene when a suicide appears imminent. It encourages and/or mandates professional assistance to handle a particular crisis or treat a mental illness. In this area, early involvement is a crucial factor in suicide risk reduction. Intervention includes alteration of the conditions that produced the current crisis, treatment of underlying psychiatric disorder(s) that contributed to suicidal thoughts, and follow-up care to assure problem resolution. This also could include controlling a person's environment such as removing the means and enacting watchful care from a buddy. Commanders play an integral part during this phase, as it is their responsibility to ensure access to behavioral health care and that a particular problem or crisis has been resolved before assuming the person is out of danger.
