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Announcements

  • The Model Adolescent Suicide Prevention Program has been added to the BPR and NREPP

    The Model Adolescent Suicide Prevention Program is a public health-oriented suicidal behavior prevention and intervention program originally developed for a small American Indian tribe in rural New Mexico to target high rates of suicide among its adolescents and young adults. The program includes community education about suicide and related behavioral issues, such as child abuse and neglect, family violence, trauma, and alcohol and substance abuse. Central features of the community-wide initiative include formalized surveillance of suicide-related behaviors; a school-based suicide prevention curriculum; community education; enhanced screening and clinical services; and extensive outreach provided through health clinics, social services programs, schools, and community gatherings and events. In addition, neighborhood volunteers of various ages are recruited to serve as "natural helpers."

    For more information

  • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) hosts webinar, Advocacy 101, Thursday, June 21, 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET

    This latest webinar in the AFSP’s Policy Webinar Series provides chapter members, field advocates, and interested members of the public with the basics of advocating for suicide prevention, education, and research in order to raise awareness about suicide and help spread the word that prevention is possible.

    For more information

  • CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) releases the 2011 national, state, and local Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) results

    Conducted every two years, the YRBS monitors six categories of priority health risk behaviors that contribute to death and disability among high school students, including suicide risk behaviors. Nationally, during the 12 months before the survey, 28.5% of students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row that they stopped doing usual activities; 15.8% seriously considered attempting suicide; 12.8% made a plan about how they would attempt suicide; 7.8% attempted suicide one or more times and 2.4% made a suicide attempt that had to be medically treated. Data are also provided for 43 states and 21 localities. The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) website also provides trend data for suicide-related risk behaviors and access to Youth Online, an interactive database of YRBS results.

    For more information

Research

  • Mental Health Services and Stigma in the Military

    Stigma reduction programs incorporating education and “direct contact with respected peers or veterans who have coped with mental health problems” may increase the use of mental health services by soldiers, according to the authors of a review of the literature on attitudes toward mental illness. The authors found that the research literature described three categories of stigma that contribute to the reluctance of soldiers to seek treatment for mental health and substance abuse issues. These are:

    Public stigma - negative stereotypes of people with mental illness. Public stigma often involves discrimination by peers and superiors, which can interfere with the possibility of promotion and career advancement;

    Self-stigma - the “loss of self-esteem and self-efficiency that occurs when people internalize public stigma.” Self-stigma can exacerbate both mental health issues and their effects on military careers as well as lower self-esteem and self-efficacy, which can lead to poor performance and, in turn, poor performance evaluations.

    Label avoidance - when individuals do not acknowledge their symptoms or seek treatment in order to avoid discrimination and lack of advancement. Label avoidance can result in soldiers not seeking services that could improve both their mental health and their job performance.

    The authors of this review (which included research on successful stigma-reduction programs implemented in military settings) recommend targeting military personnel in the early stages of military training as well as those returning from theaters of operation.

    Ben-Zeev D., Corrigan, P. W., Britt, T. W., & Langford, L. (2012). Stigma of mental illness and service use in the military. Journal of Mental Health, 21(3), 264-273.

     

    Other Selected Resources

    For more information about suicide in the military, including strategies to address stigma, SPRC recommends these publications.

    The Challenge and the Promise: Strengthening the Force, Preventing Suicide, and Saving Lives. Final Report of the Department of Defense Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces.

    The War Within: Suicide Prevention in the U.S. Military. A Research Brief from the Rand Center for Military Policy Research.

News

National News

  • Does macho culture keep suicidal soldiers from seeking help?

    Strengths that serve soldiers well in battle – such as toughness, stoicism, and self-sufficiency – may make it difficult for a service member to accept psychological help, according to Eric Caine, co-director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “It’s a fine balance between saying it’s a sign of strength to ask for help and saying it’s a sign of strength to be able to face adversity with a sense of self-sufficiency,” said Caine. “It’s always challenging for [military] leadership to be able to find that balance.” The key to making suicide prevention programs work, according to Caine, is to reach soldiers before they get to a breaking point and convince them that it’s okay to accept help.

    Jun 8, 2012

    LiveScience

    Read about the successful US Air Force suicide prevention program, which included an intervention meant to change social norms about seeking help.

State News

  • In sweat lodge, vets find healing “down to the core”

    Increasing numbers of veterans with substance abuse and traumatic stress problems are finding healing at sweat lodge ceremonies offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Sweat lodge ceremonies (also known as “sweats”) are conducted by Native American spiritual leaders, often include prayers and drumming, and are common in Indian Country. The sweats offered by the VA, which were originally intended for Native American veterans, are drawing more and more non-Native American veterans. The VA recently moved the sweat lodge ceremonies from the substance abuse program to the National Chaplain Center so they would be more widely available to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The ceremonies aren’t a good fit for every veteran, but many have found that adding them to their medical and psychological treatment regimens has helped them. At one ceremony, Steve Rich (a Gulf War veteran with PTSD who is going through the VA’s substance abuse program) imagined speaking with the spirit of a friend who died in Iraq and the spirit of an Iraqi soldier he killed. Said Rich, “I [have] been walking around with this backpack with this weight in it, and doing that I was able to take off the backpack and just set it down and continue on my path.”

    May 28, 2012

    NPR

International News

  • Seoul to form watchdog for suicide Web sites

    South Korea

    The South Korean government has appointed a team of internet “watchdogs” who will scan the internet for content that promotes suicide. The hundred-member group comprises a cross-section of society, including students and housewives as well as mental health specialists. The watchdogs will monitor blogs and social media sites with the aim of identifying and preventing suicide pacts. According to the South Korean government, there are five times as many suicides in South Korea as there were a generation ago. Many Koreans cite the country’s high-pressure education system and the country’s rapid economic growth (which has led to some of the longest working hours in the developed world) as factors influencing the suicide rate.

    Jun 5, 2012

    BBC

Funding

  • National Research Service Awards (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grants

    The primary objective of these grants is to provide institutional support for the training of qualified pre-doctoral and post-doctoral health sciences researchers in areas including behavioral health.

    Deadline for letters of intent is August 17, 2012.

    National Research Service Awards (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grants

    Show Details

    The primary objective of these grants is to provide institutional support for the training of qualified pre-doctoral and post-doctoral health sciences researchers in areas including behavioral health.

    Deadline for letters of intent is August 17, 2012.


    Public or non-profit private institutions, state, tribal or local governments with an established health services researcher with a successful past training record, and available resources to conduct the proposed training program at the institution.
    Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
    12-18 awards of up to $600,000 per year for five years

    For more information