Stopping Military Suicides: Veteran Voices to Help Prevent Deaths [Kietas viršelis]

Blending illustrative narratives from veterans with cutting-edge research, this book provides a model for a needed shift from treatment post-trauma to psychological training pre-trauma to prevent deep depression and resulting suicides.

As suicides among members of the U.S. military and veterans continue at a rate higher than in the general population—at least 22 each day—and their calls for help become more tragically blatant, with three veterans waiting for treatment outside Veterans Administration hospitals in 2019 committing suicide there—author and ex-marine Kate Hendricks Thomas present a call for a new approach to help halt the needless deaths.

Thomas, now a researcher and assistant professor of public health, details a plan to establish preventative training for mental fitness that will help psychologically "vaccinate" service members against depression and PTSD, the most common precursors to suicidal thoughts. Thomas details her mental fitness training program to shift from post-trauma treatment to pre-trauma prevention. Each topic addressed is illustrated with stories from veterans. Part of the solution, Thomas explains, is to present prevention as something for all service members, and as a positive, strength-building, challenging activity for champions, as opposed to a post-trauma treatment only for "weak and broken" warriors.

• Includes a plan for proactive military measures to establish knowledge and habits to help service men and women, before trauma, become depression- and suicide-resistant