Army Sets New Calendar Year Record For Soldier Suicides from American Psychiatric Association Headlines:
According to the current edition of the Army Times (12/27), the US Army “has set a new calendar year record for soldier suicides — with one month still to count.” By the end of the year, the “2010 suicide rate will be more than 10 percent more than last year and as much as three times the rate in 2006.” The Times adds that through November of this year, “127 non-active-duty Guard and Reserve soldiers killed themselves, compared to 80 such suicides in all of 2009.”
Acting Guard Director Working On Suicide Prevention. A separate story in the current edition of the Army Times<> (12/27, Hoffman) says Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, the “Army National Guard’s acting director,” is “working to halt a disturbing rise in suicides and to ensure the Guard transitions smoothly once deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan drop, all while the Guard continues its 19-month search for a permanent director.” Raymond “said he expects to see better training to teach Guardsmen to cope better with their problems.”
Concern Expressed About Medications Taken By Children Of Deployed Soldiers. Also in its current edition, the Army Times<> (12/27, Jowers, Tilghman) says mental health problems in children and the “use of powerful” medications to treat such problems are worrying a “growing number of military families who are struggling with the impact of long, frequent deployments on their children left at home.” In addition, Josephine Johnston of the “Hastings Center, a New York-based research group,” says, “Many members of the pediatric psychiatric community are concerned about the [in the use of psychiatric medicines].”
From the American Psychiatric Association