A life saver

By Cursha Pierce-Lunderman, Fort Jackson LeaderSeptember 1, 2011

FORT JACKSON, S.C. -- As the Army nears its 10th year in the War on Terrorism, Soldier suicide rates have reached a historic high. As Suicide Prevention Month begins, the Army, and Fort Jackson, are working to find better ways to reach Soldiers before they result to taking their own lives.

This year's theme, "Shoulder to Shoulder: Bringing Resilience to the Army Family," reflects the proactive approach the Army is taking to keep Soldiers alive and families resilient despite various triggers that lead to self-destructive behavior.

Fort Jackson Army Substance Abuse Program has a specific Suicide Prevention Program to help service members, family members and civilians deal with suicidal thoughts.

"We know that suicidal thoughts occur when something else is already going on," said Sandra Barnes of ASAP. "(People) may already be abusing drugs or have some mental issues that are clouding their thinking and convincing them that suicide is the way. Here, we bring the awareness and education element to people so they know there is another way. We refer them to chaplains or certified counselors so they can get the professional help they need also."

This year, Barnes and her colleagues have found a different way to address the issue of suicidal behavior in the Fort Jackson community.

"Last year we had someone come in and share about the pain of her son committing suicide. This year we decided to flip it a little bit and talk about the triggers and self-defeating behaviors that lead up to suicide," Barnes said. "We will have Dr. Robert Ackerman, a relationship expert, come to speak at one of our events and encourage healthy relationships, because relationship issues are one of the triggers for suicidal behavior."

The Army has also decided not to focus on the tragedy of suicide in the campaign this year, but is using this as a chance to concentrate on resiliency.

The Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program is one way in which the Army is giving Soldiers tools to cope with life, relationships and adversity for better mental and emotional health.

In addition, resilience training courses created in 2009 for Soldiers and civilians encourages people to think differently about their lives before harmful behavior like drug abuse becomes an issue.

Fort Jackson is home to the Master Resilience Training Course that trains Soldiers and civilians on competencies such as: self-awareness, optimism and mental agility.

"We teach people to hunt for the good because we can easily fall into the trap of negative thinking," said Sgt. Maj. Brian Washington, the course sergeant major. "A Soldier might not even realize it, but just starting and ending the day thinking on the good things in your life helps train you to look at your world differently. That's some of what we teach here."

Throughout the 10-day course, students are taught the basics of resiliency and how to teach the information to others. Soldiers also become trained teachers and receive an additional skill identifier, 8R, that they keep the rest of their Army careers.

"The goal is for each unit to have an 8R to help implement the resilience training at some level in the unit, whether it is company, battalion, or brigade," said course director, Alvin Shrum. "We teach the student when to use the competencies, but we also teach them to know when MRT is not enough and a referral is needed. We don't deal with suicide prevention and that is not what this class is for; this is a proactive way to positively deal with what happens in your life each day."

Williams added that MRT is a life skill training that supervisors can use in formal and informal counselings with their Soldiers that also translates to their personal lives.

This resiliency training is so important to Soldier fitness that the Army has established training sites all over the world to reach Soldiers stationed overseas and serving on deployments," Williams said.

"We have MRT courses being taught in Bagram (Afghanistan), Korea, Hawaii and all over," Williams said. "The Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program can send out a mobile training team to sites where it just isn't possible for everyone to come to Jackson for training."

Spouses are also able to learn about resiliency through ACS courses. Providing resilience training for both Soldiers and family members coincides with this month's theme of resiliency for the entire family.

"We teach resiliency in three phases over about three days of training through Fort Jackson ACS. They are the same modules the Soldiers learn at Victory University and it is designed to offer family members resiliency skills in adversity," said Marilynn Bailey of ACS. "The resiliency courses are just awesome training and it is all about building better and stronger relationships. If both the Soldiers and spouses and trained, they should have a great relationship and that is our main goal."