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JBSA News
NEWS | July 18, 2008

Suicide awareness and prevention saves lives

By Tony Perez 37th Training Wing Public Affairs

Summer is usually time for swimming parties and summer vacation, but it is also the highest season for suicide.

July is Suicide Prevention Month and in an effort to broaden suicide awareness and prevention, the Lackland Chaplain Service has implemented a new education program.

SafeTALK, or Suicide Awareness For Everyone: Tell, Ask, Listen and Keep safe, provides Airmen with common language and procedures to comfortably and assertively engage in a conversation about suicide. Classes provide Airmen with scenarios to act out so they can become comfortable with talking about suicide.

Chaplain (Maj.) Richard Novotny is the senior chaplain of the Basic Military Training Chapel Branch. "Some people will miss an opportunity to talk to someone about suicide because they don't understand the language, or they don't want to talk about it. They think they will be planting the idea in someone's head, but that's not true. You are not planting that idea in someone's head by asking the question. Otherwise caring and helpful people at times miss, dismiss or avoid suicide alerts," he said.

"When people look at the events taking place in their lives, some fail to see that there are alternatives," Chaplain Novotny said. "They need alternatives because people who are contemplating suicide have tunnel vision, and they don't see anything but this last act."

While talking about suicide is the goal of SafeTALK, socializing in general is one of the best ways to combat suicide, according to Capt. (Dr.) Craig Bryan, 59th Mental Health Squadron. "One of the most powerful suicide preventatives is positive social relationships and a sense of belonging to a group," he said.

According to Dr. Bryan, environment plays a heavy role in determining whether or not someone will commit suicide.

The social climate of the work place can also affect whether or not a person seeks help.

"One concern is what people think about mental health treatment in a particular unit or squadron," Dr. Bryan said. "Unfortunately, 75 percent of our Airmen who commit suicide do not come in and try to get help."

"Severe marital or relationship difficulties, followed by something else underneath, like being under investigation, monetary or health issues, can be indicators," said 37th Training Wing Chaplain (Col.) Carl Andrews.

A co-worker's life problem can come up during a routine work conversation, and multiple components should be indicators to initiate a dialogue on suicide.

Chaplain Novotny cautions that some of the older methods of discovering if someone is contemplating suicide are lost with today's advances in technology.

"Since everyone is texting and e-mailing, that personal exchange is lost and it's harder to sense how a person is feeling."

"Research has shown that there are some biological and genetic contributors to suicide. It tells you which ballpark you are going to be playing in, but how the game will be played is up to the individual," Dr. Bryan said. "But I would argue that it's best to see suicide as a learned behavior, and it comes from someone's personal capacity to manage emotional distress. There is no genetic link to distress tolerances. That is something you learn over the period of your life. Suicide is the result of life problems that go unchecked."

One of the major problems in combating suicide is how quickly thoughts turn into actions.

"People who are suicidal have thought about it and have planned it out. They start rehearsing the action in their minds, and then they will physically start practicing counting out the pills, putting the gun to their head, or tying the noose," Dr. Bryan said.

"Then, during a period of emotional distress, since they already conditioned themselves, it is easier for them to cross that barrier and commit the act."

Dr. Bryan adds that once a person has made the final decision to commit suicide, 20 percent of people do so within the first five minutes of coming to that conclusion.

Seventy percent of people will kill themselves within an hour of their initial decision.

Once a person has admitted to suicidal thoughts, it is imperative to find out what method he or she wanted to use.

"If we can take away the physical means they had planned to use for suicide, they have a far less chance of committing suicide," Dr. Bryan said.

"The most important thing for people to understand that is that suicide isn't about killing yourself, it's about ending suffering," Dr. Bryan said. "They don't see another way to do it." 

The Lackland Chaplain Corps will hold another SafeTALK training session in the next quarter. 

For more information, call 671-4101.