The Army Suicide Prevention Program (SP2) improves the readiness of the Army through the development and enhancement of suicide prevention initiatives, policies, training, data collection and analysis, and strategic communications and partnerships. The goal of the Army Suicide Prevention Program aims to prevent suicides by building a culture of resilience, help seeking behavior, and intervention. In support of this goal, the Army is enhancing personal readiness and increasing deployability by focusing on strengthening soldiers, increasing Commanders’ and Leaders’ visibility of risk factors, improving leader engagement, and instilling a culture of trust to ensure successful service. Leaders’ understanding of the factors influencing soldier suicides is critical to early identification, prevention, and intervention.

Top Stressors Involved in Army Suicides:

• Financial Issues/Debt
• Relationship/Family conflict
• Mental/Behavioral Health
• Substance Abuse

The Pillars and Processes of Suicide Prevention Suicide prevention is dependent upon the existence of a culture that fosters trust, caring, and engaged individuals focused on early intervention as opposed to crisis management alone. It requires a strong collaborative team. 

Suicide prevention will include the following activities:

1. Enhance life skills and resilience.
2. Increase visibility of readiness with assessment tools to identify and assist persons at risk, i.e., Commanders Risk Reduction Toolkit (CRRT).
3. Ensure access to effective behavioral health care and treatment.
4. Support command integration of resources that mitigate risk factors and high-risk behaviors in order to minimize gaps in information and services, i.e., Command and Installation governance forums like the Command Ready and Resilient Council (CR2C).
5. Improve communication, counseling and soldier to soldier connection (bystander intervention).
6. Encourage help-seeking behavior to reduce stigma and negative perceptions of limited career opportunities.
7. Reduction of lethal means (to include medications, weapons, etc.).
8. Provide immediate response and postvention support.

Note: The Army Suicide Prevention Office is NOT a crisis center and does not provide counseling services. If you are feeling distressed or hopeless, thinking about death or wanting to die, or, if you are concerned about someone who may be suicidal, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 and press 1 for the Military Crisis Line or text 838255.

Active Duty Soldiers, Army National Guard, Army Reserve members, and their dependents who are eligible for treatment in the military health system are eligible for service.

SP2 educates and trains active duty, Reserve and National Guard Soldiers, Army Civilians and family members on suicide prevention and postvention actions to minimize the risk for suicide to include:

• Indicators of potential suicide behavior

• Intervention strategies

• Services and resources

The Army’s Suicide Prevention Care Continuum recognizes that all individuals are always in one of the following three phases and incorporates these three Prevention Elements:

1. Prevention: Individuals in this area are perceived as unaffected by stressors and demonstrate no indicators of increased risk. The Army’s objective is to provide training and support to keep all members of the Army family in this phase as much as possible. This phase aligns with the National Strategy’s “Universal” prevention element.

2. Intervention: Individuals in this phase have signaled that they are at increased risk and require institutional intervention. The duration of this phase is dependent on the individual’s response to intervention. This phase aligns best with the National Strategy’s “Selective” prevention element.

3. Postvention: The post-event stage coincides with the outcome of probable high risk behavior requiring institutional intervention. Individuals in this phase have attempted suicide or are the survivors (spouses, children, parents or significant others) of the individual who completed suicide. Actions in this phase seek to return the failed suicide attempt to Intervention and then Prevention, and to assist family members and others associated with the attempted or completed suicidal act. This phase aligns with the “Indicated” prevention element.

Suicide Prevention Training

When someone needs help, remember ACE:

1. Ask your battle buddy or family member if he or she is thinking about harming themselves. Asking will not increase the likelihood that they will commit suicide. You will not place the idea in their head.

2. Care for your battle buddy or family member by listening and reassuring them that immediate help is available. Calmly talk to them and use words like “let me make sure I understand you, do you mean…” And remove any means that they might use to harm themselves.

3. Escort your battle buddy or family member to get help. This can be an emergency room, a primary care provider, or a behavioral health professional. If they refuse to go with you, do not leave them alone. Call 911 if necessary.

ACE is the Army-approved suicide prevention and awareness training model. The key training objective is awareness training (risk factors and warning signs). In accordance with (IAW) AR 600-92 ACE training is conducted annually. U.S. Army Public Health Command (PHC) Provisional has developed training focused at: soldiers, Leaders, DA Civilians and families. Completion of training for soldiers and Leaders will be documented in the Digital Training Management System (DTMS) and the Individual Training Record (ITR) IAW AR 350-1.

Click here to access training resources.

Suicide Prevention Battle Drills

You can help prevent suicide or suicide attempts by actively intervening when a soldier, battle buddy or loved one expresses suicidal ideation. Be alert and engaged before they are overwhelmed by life stressors and risk factors. Suicidal ideation, or suicidal thoughts, means thinking about planning suicide. Thoughts can range from a quick consideration to a detailed plan. These tools can help you engage and prevent deaths by suicide.

Report Concerning Behavior You See on Social Media

If someone you know posts messages of suicide or self-harm on social media, you can contact the safety teams who will reach out and connect them with the help they need.

If you see a direct threat of suicide on social media, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline immediately or Call 911.

Report suicidal behavior via a social media platform:

Instagram
To report posts about suicidal behavior or self-harm on Instagram: Tap “…” below the post, Tap Report Inappropriate, Select This Photo Puts People at Risk > Self-Harm. Click Here for more information.

Snapchat
To report a safety concern, press and hold on that Snapchatter's name and tap the gear button. Then, tap 'Report' and reach out to Snapchat, and follow the prompts. Click Here for more information .

YouTube
To report suicide or self-harm, click “More.” Highlight and click “Report” in the drop-down menu. Click “Harmful dangerous acts,” then “Suicide or self-injury.” YouTube will review the video and may send a message to the uploader with the Lifeline number. Click Here for more information.

Facebook
To report suicidal content, go to your settings, click on “Support Inbox” and the Facebook Help Center search bar will appear in the box to the right of the page or type https://www.facebook.com/help/ in the search bar on Facebook or Google. Click Here for more information.

Twitter
You can report directly from an individual tweet, list or profile for certain violations, including: spam, abusive or harmful content, inappropriate ads, self-harm and impersonation. To report a violation, open the profile you would like to report, select the overflow icon, select report and then select the type of issue you would like to report. Click Here for more information.

Army G-1 Suicide Prevention Program (SP2):
https://www.armyresilience.army.mil/suicide-prevention/index.html

Army’s Ready Resilient Campaign (R2):
https://www.armyresilience.army.mil/ard/R2-home.html

Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 6490.16, Defense Suicide Prevention Program:
https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/issuances/dodi/649016p.pdf?ver=2020-09-11-122632-850