Air Force directive aimed at preventing Airmen suicide

Five Military and Family Life Counselors have been added to units at Joint Base San Antonio as part of an Air Force initiative to prevent suicides among service members.

The new MFLCs are being assigned to seven units within JBSA, including one unit at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, one unit at JBSA-Camp Bullis and five units at JBSA-Lackland.

MFLCs provide non-medical, short-term, situational and problem-solving counseling services for active-duty members, National Guard and Reserve members and their family members.

Essie Whitworth-Nurse, 502nd Air Base Wing interim JBSA Resilience and Community Support coordinator, said the additional MFLCs who have been assigned to units within JBSA are part of the Targeted Resilience Outreach initiative which is included in the Air Force Suicide Prevention Lines of Effort plan.

“Line of effort entails an initiative to help with the prevention of suicide,” Whitworth-Nurse said. “It’s a great effort and it’s much needed.”

The TRO is one of six initiatives included in the Suicide Prevention Lines of Effort that came about after the Air Force suicide prevention summit held at Joint Base Andrews, Md., in September 2015.

At the summit, discussions by Air Force officials centered on the problem of the increasing number of suicides in the Air Force and ways to improve suicide prevention strategies and programs.

Plans for the TRO initiative include placing MFLCs within units and installations to increase support and education, promote positive coping strategies and prevent suicides.

Whitworth-Nurse said the new MFLCs being assigned to JBSA units will be readily available to service members for counseling and other activities within those units.

“The MFLCs are able to teach classes,” Whitworth-Nurse said. “They can do one-on-one counseling sessions and they can do commander’s call briefings. They become part of the unit.”

With the five additional MFLCs, JBSA now has 18 MFLCs serving the adult population and 19 MFLCs for children at the schools and youth centers.

MFLCs can assist and provide support to service members and their families experiencing issues and problems in their lives, including deployment stress, reintegration, relocation adjustment, separation, anger management, conflict resolution, parenting, parent/child communication, relationship and family issues, coping skills, homesickness and grief and loss.