Petty Officer and Nurse Saved 84 Year Old Ready to Jump From Bridge

Navy aircrewman, nurse, team to stop San Diego bridge suicide
The San Diego Union-Tribune (Tribune News Service)
By Pauline Repard and Lyndsay Winkley
Published: August 9, 2016

It was a life-or-death moment on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge Monday in San Diego, Calif. when a Naval aircrewman pulled over to stop a man from leaping into the bay.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Pisano, shown here in an undated photo, and an unidentified nurse helped stop an elderly man from jumping off the San Diego-Coronado Bridge and were reunited via social media later that day. VIA FACEBOOK

As the two struggled, the 21-year-old Petty Officer 3rd Class Nick Pisano screamed for someone to help him talk the man down. Dozens of motorists whizzed past, until a nurse stopped, and calmed the man down until authorities arrived.

Pisano told the San Diego Union-Tribune Tuesday that there was no way he was going to let the man jump.

“I made sure I had a good grasp on his arm so he couldn't make his way closer to the ledge,” the native San Diegan said. “He was making it very clear that he wanted to end his life, and I did what I could to make sure that didn't happen.”

Pisano didn’t think to grab his phone in his haste to get to the man, so he started waiving down motorists, hoping someone would help. He didn’t even notice the nurse until she was at his side.

“She went right at it,” he said. “She was cool, calm, collected and knew exactly what to say him.”
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PTSD Afghanistan Missing Veteran Found Safe

ARMY VETERAN FOUND AFTER ESCAPING FROM HOSPITAL
ABC 13 News
By Kaitlin McCulley
July 26, 2016

HUMBLE, TX (KTRK) -- A 26-year-old Army veteran was found in Cypress after escaping from a hospital in Humble.

Shane Zhan was being treated at Memorial Hermann Northeast after attempting suicide. According to the Humble Police Department, Zhan escaped Sunday.

His father, Mark Zahn, tells abc13 that Shane walked from Humble to Cypress and started talking to an elderly pastor. The pastor convinced him to contact his family, according to Mark.

Danielle Ursell is his twin sister. She and the rest of her family were concerned Zhan was a danger to himself. She said he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and has been reluctant to get help.

Mark Zahn agreed.

"Keeps the problems inside, doesn't want to talk with anybody," Zahn said. "Doesn't want to share his problems with anybody."

Zahn wants to know how his son was able to escape.
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Suicide Calls Up 40 Percent

Suicide calls are up and so are suicides. So what good does all the "awareness" do when they reach the point where they do not want to live instead of getting what they need to heal?

Increase in suicide calls takes toll on 911 dispatchers
The Coloradoan
Sarah Jane Kyle
June 21, 2016

Increasing suicides and suicide threat calls have become "a daily occurrence" in the last five years, he said. Last year, 81 people died by suicide in Larimer County, nearing the record of 83 set in 2014.

Shortly after completing his training to become a 911 dispatcher in Fort Collins, Brendan Solano handled a call he'll never forget — a suicidal man "holding the gun in his hands."

Solano spent an hour on the phone talking with the man about his military service, his kids and anything else he could think of to keep him on the phone until police could intervene and help the man.

"I didn't know what to ask, what to say," said Solano, 24, who became a dispatcher nearly three years ago. "I didn't know this guy. He doesn't know me. ... Those calls are really hard to deal with."

And there have been many of those calls.

“It's another person calling in and asking for help. You've got to be able to get them help, just like anybody else.”

Suicide and suicide threat calls to Fort Collins 911 increased by 40 percent from 2011 to 2015, according to Fort Collins Police Services.
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Veteran Has New Mission After Attempted Suicide, Saving Others

Suicide Attempt: A Soldier's Story
ABC News 25
By Jillian Corder, Reporter
Friday, May 27th 2016

"There's no way that God allowed me to live through this if there is a God - which I know there is - that he would not want me to be helping other people when he saved me through that," Matthew Richard

After struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , or PTSD, for years, Matthew Richard attempted to take his own life in March. (Source: Jillian Corder/KPLC)

SULPHUR, LA (KPLC)
Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in Louisiana, and every 13 hours, someone dies by their own hand, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Nationwide, stories of veterans falling victim to mental health disorders are all too common.

After struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , or PTSD, for years, Matthew Richard, 30, attempted to take his own life in March.

"So I looked in the mirror and I said 'God I'm going to countdown,'" Richard said, describing the moment he decided to take his own life, "I said 3, and I took it off safety. I said '3, 2, 1' and I said 'God' and I shot."

To understand what led Richard to this moment, he starts from the beginning of his military career. He joined the Marine Corps in 2005, following in the footsteps of his godfather.

"I told myself since I was 6 or 7 years old that I was going to be a Marine because of him," he said.

Just two years in the service, tragedy struck when Richard was overseas in Ramadi, Iraq.

"I ended up accidentally shooting a best friend of mine over there when we got back from patrol," said Richard.

Richard's gun discharged, killing Lance Corporal Steven Chavez. He went to the brig for a year for negligent homicide and received a bad conduct discharge, meaning his military benefits were stripped. Richard was no longer eligible for help from the VA, forcing him to deal with PTSD on his own.

"I was struggling mentally, physically, and spiritually for a long time after that dealing with it," said Richard.

Richard was in a place he never thought he'd be.

"I've had four or five senior Marines who have come back from war and shot themselves over divorce or other things, and I told myself, 'I'll never do that.'"
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KXXV-TV News Channel 25 - Central Texas News and Weather for Waco, Temple, Killeen |

Research Looks At Suicide Among Deployed and Non-Deployed Soldiers

Several things to consider when reading the following. All military forces are "trained in prevention" after being going through medical and psychological testing. If that training did not work on the non-deployed to prevent suicide, then how did they expect it to work on those with multiple deployments? The data researchers were looking at in this study is not new. With the reduction of force size in the Army has gone down, why hasn't the number of suicides been reduced accordingly? Above all, why hasn't the number of suicides reached that often quoted "One too many" the Army finds acceptable?

Suicide Attempts Among US Army Soldiers More Likely Before Combat: Study
Medical Daily
By Susan Scutti
May 27, 2016

"The study looked at a total of 163,178 enlisted soldiers. Of these, 9,650 had attempted suicide: 86.3 percent were men, 68.4 percent were younger than 30"

Over the past decade, suicide attempts have increased in the United States Army. Despite the issue's urgency, little has been done to understand these failed attempts at self-destruction. New research from Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences suggests enlisted soldiers never deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan were at greatest risk of a suicide attempt, particularly in their second month of service.

Never-deployed soldiers were at highest risk of a suicide attempt between 2004 and 2009 of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Reuters

“The higher risk among ND soldiers in their second month of service, a stressful time during basic training and Army acculturation, reinforces the importance of developing and evaluating effective risk detection and intervention strategies early in a soldier’s career,” noted the researchers. “Whether this risk pattern was associated with expanded Army recruitment during war or anticipated deployments or is a persistent pattern of risk among soldiers in training remains to be determined.”

The team also discovered soldiers on their first deployment were most at risk for a suicide attempt during their sixth month of deployment, while previously deployed soldiers were most at risk five months after they returned from the warzone.

“Understanding how people go from health, to suicide ideation, to suicide plans, to suicide attempts, to completed suicide will help us help those at risk and those who are distressed but do not complete suicide,” Dr. Robert J. Ursano, lead author, told Medical Daily.

Among soldiers with one previous deployment, odds of a suicide attempt were higher among those who screened positive for depression or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after their return and particularly at follow-up screening, about four to six months after deployment.
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Suicidal Veteran Taken to Hospital by Police in California

UPDATE
Standoffs highlight Shasta County’s suicide problem

Deputies: Suicidal veteran sent to hospital after waving machete in Shingletown
Record Searchlight
Redding.com
May 6, 2016

Shasta County Sheriff's deputies early Friday confronted a 26-year-old man - who they later identified as a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder - after he was spotted waving a machete as passerbys in Shingletown, they said.

Dispatchers just before 1 a.m. received report of the man waving the machete near Reed's Market on Highway 44.

Deputies responded to the area to find the man walking along the highway. They tried to talk to him but he kept walking, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The man was then seen holding a machete, at which point deputies ordered him to stop walking and put the machete down, deputies said.

The man complied with that order and another to kneel on the ground, deputy Jon Ruiz said. He then pulled a knife to his neck and told deputies he wrote a letter which they took to mean a suicide note, Ruiz said.
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After Click of Gun Trigger, Firefighter Started to Heal PTSD

How 1 firefighter beat PTSD
Fire Chief
Rick Markley, FR1 Editor-in-chief
April 29, 2016

"I haven't been angry in over 20 months," he said. "It's a pretty amazing feeling. It's like being a year and a half old and seeing everything for the first time."

Firefighter Scott Geiselhart, a 20-year veteran, was at his wit's end when he put his most reliable revolver to his head. He was alone, angry, isolated from friends and family, a heavy drug user and tormented by nightmares.

When he pulled the trigger, there was only a "click." That was two years ago and to this day he has no idea why the gun didn't fire. That was one of two times he was ready to take his own life.

The second time came shortly after he learned that he had post-traumatic stress disorder. He burst in on his estranged family, manic with the news that the years of abuse he'd doled out wasn't because he was crazy — there was a reason.

When they recoiled, he retreated to his auto repair business and phoned a police officer he knew to ask that he explain his condition to his family. The officer said he was coming over to take him to the hospital, then jail.

Geiselhart got out his acetylene tanks and an automatic rifle. He wasn't going anywhere. As he waited, he made three phone calls. The first was to a suicide help line; after 12 tries there was no answer. He called another hotline that offered him an appointment 10 days later; he didn't think he'd live that long.

His third and last call was to the Share the Load program, where he talked to someone who got it.
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Veteran Pushed to Attempted Suicide by VA?

Canceled VA appts pushed vet to suicide attempt
Investigation confirms San Diego VA falsified wait times for patients
San Diego Union Tribune
By Jeanette Steele
March 31, 2016

An investigation released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says the San Diego VA hospital triggered one veteran’s suicide attempt in 2014 by repeatedly canceling his mental health appointments.

The investigation also found that at least two San Diego VA employees instructed appointment clerks to “zero out” wait times in the scheduling database, presenting an unrealistically positive picture of how long patients were waiting for mental health care.

The tactics may have affected hundreds of San Diego veterans seeking mental health treatment.

The VA’s inspector general found that employees in the San Diego mental health clinic scheduled more than 700 appointments with a 98 to 100 percent rate of zero-day wait times -- described as virtually impossible without data manipulation.

The findings are among more than 70 investigations the VA has released nationally over the past few weeks.

The investigations of VA facilities in several states followed a sweeping scandal in 2014 that started over allegations of falsified wait times at the Phoenix VA hospital.
read more here
Linked from RawStory

Disabled Veteran Sues After Police Siege Led to Attempted Suicide

Va. Man Says Police Siege Led to Suicide Attempt
Courthouse News
By Charly Himmel
March 18, 2016

"Wells was not a criminal but it seemed that he was under a brutal military type attack from the police and deputies," the complaint says. "He decided to end it right there and die by his own hand before he'd be taken in this insane situation."

After one failed attempt, Wells says he managed to shoot himself in the chest.

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) - A disabled veteran claims in court that an entirely unwarranted siege at his home by law enforcement officers caused him to try to kill himself.

In a complaint filed in Richmond City Circuit Court, Ronald Elwin Wells Jr. says he was home alone with his dog and watching a baseball game on Sept. 16, 2013, when a police officer showed up at his door, saying he'd been asked to check on Wells by the "welfare department."

Wells says he told the officer he wasn't on welfare, and that in any event, he was fine.

The officer left, and Wells says he went back to watching the game, then promptly fell asleep.

Sometime around 7 p.m. that, the complaint says, Wells was awakened by state troopers who were knocking at his door.

"Wells started to be afraid because of all this attention he was getting for no apparent reason," the complaint says.

He did not answer his door, and he didn't answer it later when, he says "a number of State Troopers or other police type people came in fatigues with helmets and face shields with long guns in their hands."

Wells says in an attempt to remain calm, he went back to watching television. Two hours later, however, he heard someone calling him over a loudspeaker.

At this point, the complaint says, "Wells became really scared."
read more here

Ex-Police Officer Holds Press Conference After Standoff Ends

UPDATE
Ex-Jeffersonville cop says PTSD led to his suicidal standoff
WVAE 3 News
By Katie Bauer
Friday, February 26th 2016

SELLERSBURG, IN (WAVE) – A former Jeffersonville police officer won't face charges after he was the center of a several-hour standoff in his own home Friday morning.

This all played out along west Utica Street in Sellersburg.

Steve Cooper was a Jeff police officer for 12 years. During that time he was a SWAT sniper and undercover narcotics officer. He says he is upset with how his career unfolded after he said he opened up about suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Armed and barricaded for nearly seven hours, the standoff ended after Cooper walked out of his house peacefully to meet police.

“This was kind of a breaking point for me," he said. "I had some conversations that went awry and I got depressed and had some liquid courage and was just to the point where maybe it was time to end my life.”

Family called police, concerned and tried to help.
read more here
wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather

Former Jeffersonville police officer surrenders after standoff in Sellersburg
WDRB News
By Sitarah Coote
By Stephan Johnson
Posted: Feb 26, 2016

Steven Cooper barricaded himself in a home in Sellersburg for several hours on Feb. 26, 2016.

SELLERSBURG, Ind. (WDRB) -- An armed man who barricaded himself inside a home on West Utica Street in Sellersburg early Friday has surrendered.

Sellersburg Police Deputy Chief Mark Levesque says officers were called about 2:30 a.m. to check on a man in the home that might be suicidal.

The man, identified as Steven Cooper, surrendered around 9:15 a.m. He says he is a former police officer with the Jeffersonville Police Department and wants to expose corruption.

After holding police at bay for several hours, the man inside the home -- now identified as Steve Cooper -- actually put the guns down and walked right up to our cameras and held an impromptu press conference to explain why this all happened.

"Tonight was kind of a breaking point for me," Cooper said. "We had some conversations, and they went awry, and I got depressed and and had some liquid courage and got to the point that I was thinking that maybe it's time to end my life."

But instead of ending his life, Steve Cooper, a former Jeffersonville Police officer, walked out of his house. Cooper says he left the Jeffersonville Police Department in August and has been struggling ever since.

He blames his struggles and what happened Friday morning on post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
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WDRB 41 Louisville News

Minnesota Firefighter Fights to Prevent Suicides After His Own Attempt

With Suicides Among Firefighters on the Rise, Minnesota Firefighter Tries to Help
Eyewitness 5 ABC News
Katherine Johnson
February 19, 2016

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, 87 firefighters across the country died in the line of duty in 2015. 114 firefighters committed suicide that year. That's up from 109 in 2014 and 69 firefighters in 2013. The Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance started tracking numbers on suicides in 2010.

A Minnesota firefighter is working to reduce the number of suicides among colleagues. "I just don't want this to happen to anyone else," said Frazee firefighter Scott Geiselhart in front of a room filled with firefighters from across the northern half of the state.

He's a firefighter in Frazee, a small town in Becker County with a population of about 1,350 people.

Tuesday night, he traveled to Randall as part of his effort in responding to a crisis that his fellow firefighters don't usually talk about and, he says, don't train on, either.

"I started blaming myself for every single accident I went on," he said.

Geiselhart is telling a story that goes back about a year and a half to the day that he attempted suicide.

"It was a revolver. I put it to my head and I pulled the trigger," he said. The room fell silent.

"I couldn't believe... it clicked and it didn't go off. That gun never ever misfires," Geiselhart said.
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After Being Shot By Police, Veteran Finally Gets Help

E. Texas veteran shot by deputies shares message of hope
Tucson News Now
By Skylar Gallop
Jan 27, 2016

TYLER, TX (KLTV)
A 25-year-old East Texas veteran says getting help with PTSD saved his life, after being shot by Smith County deputies in an apparent attempt at "suicide by police".

Cameron Dossey, a Navy veteran who served tours in Afghanistan and Africa, now has a strong message to other veterans to get help.

Dossey discusses his service, saying, "I don’t like people thanking me for my service, because there’s things I'm not proud of."

Dossey's family says he came back changed. Dossey admits he struggled with depression.

"You know, the last couple of years... getting stuck in my own head, all I hear are my own thoughts."

Thoughts turned into actions.

"I tried to commit suicide three times."

Family members were unable to reach him.

Dossey explains, "I never wanted to talk to my parents about what I've seen, because in my mind I'm carrying the visions and the price for freedom around in my head, so that they don't have to."

His family urged him to get help.

Dossey recalls, "I called the Green Zone, a counseling service for veterans, and I left a message but never got a call back. At that point, I did make an attempt to reach out."

Another call was returned by a different organization, but was unsuccessful at identifying the deep depression and PTSD Dossey was in denial of.
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Navy Vet Lives After Suicide Attempt And Heals

One Vet's Sad Truth
The Pueblo Chieftain
CHIEFTAIN EDITORIAL
Published: January 16, 2016

"Wounds of the psyche, wounds of the soul: they can be every bit as disabling as the wounds from a rocket-propelled grenade. That’s what, in the end, Steve Hancock’s unfortunate tale tells."

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT statistics show that after a notable drop in active-duty military suicides in 2013 the number of service members taking their own lives has risen steadily.

We wouldn’t bring up those statistics had it not been for an email we received from paralyzed Navy veteran Steve Hancock, who lives in Pueblo West.

Hancock, a former combat medic who was usually assigned to Marine units, told us in 2013 he was severely wounded during a firefight in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade exploded next to him.

That wasn’t true.

According to Hancock, the Navy’s official explanation was that he was hurt in a training accident.

That wasn’t true either.

Hancock admitted in his email sent just before the holidays that he was injured after he “jumped off the fifth floor” of his barracks in Bahrain during a suicide attempt in 2010.

“I’m no longer ashamed of how I was injured,” he told us after receiving therapy. “I’ve gone through a lot of healing. And this step, telling the real story, is the last one I need to take.”
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Marine Tyler Schlagel Suicide No One Saw Coming

With everyone doing something to prevent suicides in the military and in the veterans community, why are they still killing themselves? Each branch of the military including National Guard and Reservists have been telling all of us that "one suicide is too many" but basically they reach that claim on a daily basis.

Lord only knows how many times they'd have to say it if they had to account for all the veterans they trained to be "resilient" over the years. They sure aren't talking about the simple fact that training isn't even good enough to keep non-deployed from committing suicide but they claimed it would work on those with multiple deployments.

Is it ignorance or incompetence? Your guess is better than their's. I doubt they are even wondering why nothing they do is working? They sure as hell aren't wondering how it is that these men and women, trained to fight wars, managed to stay alive during them but not back home when they were supposed to be out of danger.

It isn't just the fact they succeed at ending their lives, but as with the story of Tyler Schlagel is told, others have tried to kill themselves as well but we can't even get the number of successful suicides right, so no one is trying to add up those battered lives either.

When asked if anyone else in the squad had attempted suicide recently, one man said no. The second said yes. He paused, then said, “Me ... a few months ago.” Without speaking, the two men fell into a deep hug.

Suicide Claims 14th Marine From a Unit Battered by Loss
New York Times
By DAVE PHILIPPS
DEC. 29, 2015

“I didn’t see it coming, not from him. Why our battalion? I’m at a damn loss." James McKendree, posted to other members’ Facebook pages the day after his death. 

Todd Heisler New York Times

LONGMONT, Colo. — Tyler Schlagel slipped out of his parents’ house while they were asleep three weeks ago and drove through the wintry darkness to his favorite fishing lake high in the Rockies.

Mr. Schlagel, a 29-year-old former Marine corporal who was stocking shelves at a sporting goods store, carried with him the eight journals he had filled during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also carried a .40-caliber pistol.

Under the bright mountain stars, he kindled a small campfire. When the flames grew high, he threw the journals into the fire, then shot himself in the head.

Mr. Schlagel’s death Dec. 9 was the 14th suicide in his military unit — the Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment — since the group returned from a bloody tour in Afghanistan in 2008. Many other members have attempted suicide, one just three days after Mr. Schlagel’s death.

The suicide rate for the 1,200 Marines who deployed together — most now out of the military — is nearly four times as high as for young male veterans as a whole and 14 times as high as that for all Americans.

For the dozen Marines who came to pay their respects — roughly a quarter of the platoon — Mr. Schlagel was the last person to suspect was struggling. He had been a squad leader and the platoon’s designated marksman who had taken the most dangerous spot at the front of patrols. He had seemed fearless, joyful, steady. His suicide made some question whether anyone was free of risk.
read more here

I've been doing this for far too long and still reading about more suicides stings as much as it did over 30 years ago. Back then we had plenty of excuses. Frankly because most of us were just learning what war did to all the generations since the Revolutionary War. The press didn't care about Vietnam veterans other than reporting about some of them being arrested unlike now when they report on Veterans Courts.  The DOD didn't care much either because they could just boot their butts out and be done with having to count them at all.

Now with billions spent every year on all the training, the DOD still hasn't seen they caused this train wreck!

Afghanistan Veteran Uses Music to Help PTSD

Jacksonville veteran uses music to cope with life after war
First Coast News
Keitha Nelson
December 28, 2015

"I attempted suicide three times by overdose. Fortunately, I was trained so well that I can't even kill me." Paul Mikeal

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Paul Mikeal was a trained machine gunner, a kill team leader and he's a Purple Heart recipient.

Paul Mikeal serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan (Photo: Paul Mikeal)

His wounds are both physical and mental.The Army veteran's story is sadly a familiar one; returning home from war unable to leave the past behind.

Mikeal's problems are deeper and darker than many can imagine. He served two tours in Afghanistan with the Army -- from 2008-2009 and again in 2011.

"I ran at bullets for a living and found those people who were sending them my way and returned the favor," said Mikeal.

"That was the reality," said Mikeal. "I wanted to die, I didn't want to be here. I wished that I would have died in Afghanistan so I didn't have to face what I was facing now."

He watched four close friends die during that time and says he too wanted to die after returning home in 2013.

Medically released, he says he had to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction problems and divorce all at once as he tried to adapt to life as a civilian.
read more here

Out of Hospital for Week, Afghanistan Veteran Shot By Police

Veteran struggling with PTSD recovers after being shot by a sheriff's deputy
KYTX News
Written by Andrea Martinez
10 December 2015

Dossey's grandfather, Phil Kling III, said his grandson has been struggling with PTSD since returning from Afghanistan and Africa about a year ago. He added that Dossey was treated and released from a local hospital last week after an incident related to the condition.

A Smith County veteran struggling with post traumatic stress disorder is recovering after he was shot by an officer during a disturbance Wednesday night.

According to information provided by the Smith County Sheriff's Office, the man was shot after threatening deputies with a knife.

Both relatives and deputies describe the disturbance that led up to the shooting as a cry for help and are calling for increased awareness of PTSD.

Deputies responded to reports of a person in distress in the 13000 block of County Road 411 in northern Smith County about 9 p.m. Wednesday.

When officers arrived, they met with the caller, Paul Kling II, who told them his son, Cameron Dossey, 25, had been drinking heavily, making suicidal statements and driving around on the property, according to a press release provided by the Smith County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies searched the area but were unable to locate Dossey. Deputies informed Kling II to call them if Dossey returned.
read more here


UDPATE

Doctor explains what to look for in people who may have PTSD
KLTV News
By Kim Leoffler
Updated: Dec 10, 2015

TYLER, TX (KLTV)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) cases are becoming more and more common throughout the country, and it could have been part of what led up to an officer-involved shooting Wednesday night.

24-year-old Cameron Dossey was shot in the torso after he reportedly lunged at Smith County sheriff's deputies with a knife, just outside of Lindale. He was still in the hospital Thursday night.

Dossey was in the Navy had been deployed twice, returning in May of last year. But since then, his family said he's been different.

“He said no one could help him, no one cared,” Andra Kling, Cameron’s mother, said.

“He said that he didn't want to live, that he was tired of everything, that we didn't know what was going on inside of his head,” Kling added.
read more here

Australia Military Suicides Increased

More than 200 military personnel committed self-harm in five years
News Corp Australia
Ian McPhedran
October 17, 2015

The highest rank involved was a RAAF Wing Commander followed by an Army Major and several Captains while there were a number of Warrant Officers and Sergeants included in the disturbing statistics.

THE Australian Defence Force recorded 212 so-called ‘self-harm’ incidents during five years including 58 last year.

Secret internal defence documents obtained by News Corp Australia show a disturbing jump in the number of self-harm incidents and suicides in the military with the Australian Veterans Suicide Register recording more than double the number of deaths between 2012 when there were 10 and the 25 so far this year.

A high-level source said that top defence brass didn’t even know that the self-harm list existed.

“When an ADF member is identified as being at risk of suicide, self-harm or harm to others, Defence mental health professionals undertake a comprehensive mental health and risk assessment,” Defence told News Corp.

The Service Police document entitled ‘self-harm and suicide attempts 2008-2014’ shows that the army dominates the list with 175 individual incidents followed by navy with 20 and the RAAF with 17.
read more here

SELF-HARM IN DEFENCE:

2008 (six months) = 7

2009 = 21

2010 = 29

2011 = 35

2012 = 37

2013 = 25

2014 = 58

Firefighter with PTSD Lives Changed After Attempted Suicide

Local firefighter says PTSD a big, unspoken issue
DL Online
By Paula Quam
Today at 5:45 a.m.

That’s when the mechanic and firefighter locked himself into his shop with his gun and in a single misfire moment, got a second chance at life.

Geiselhart believes divine intervention saved his life that day, and he was determined to find out why.

Nearly a year and a half ago, longtime Frazee Firefighter Scott Geiselhart locked himself in his auto body shop, pulled out a gun, put it to his head and pulled the trigger.

“But I heard the click….it didn’t go off,” he said, shaking his head in amazement. “I know that gun. It works fine. It fired every time before that and every time after.”

Geiselhart was left baffled and scared. For years, he had progressively gotten short-tempered, angry and verbally abusive.

“I was yelling at people, yelling at my family…” said Geiselhart, who feared he had a split personality, and it was his family who took the brunt of it, including his two sons.

“I mean, it was bad...not physically, but the yelling and the things I said...it was so, so bad.”

Geiselhart says he was having horrible nightmares every night.

“All the stuff I saw with car accidents and extractions, I’d put way back into my brain and never bring it out, but when I went to sleep the nightmares would come through and flash in front of me,” said Geiselhart. “And I’d just come unglued.”

“They’re not training firefighters about PTSD, and the’re not debriefing enough,” said Geiselhart. “We see a lot and go home after that, and we’re supposed to go to sleep next to our kids and family and put it away and not bring it up. We’ve got to unload, and not on our families. We’re supposed to be tough and absorb all this, but it doesn’t work; the macho stuff’s gotta go - it’s not cool to wreck your family.”
read more here

If you are a Firefighter or Police Officer, this video may help you understand it better.  I did it for National Guardsmen but it ended up helping more than I thought it would. There is no real "cure" for PTSD but there is healing, reversing and tools to help you with what you cannot change.

Veteran Survived 3 Tours, Attempted Suicide But Not Tampa VA Hospital

Mom questions care at Tampa V.A. hospital
News Channel 8
By Steve Andrews Investigative Reporter
Published: August 29, 2015

Robert Bradford arrived at Haley in May 2012. He suffered paralysis from a gunshot wound to the neck. Robert did two tours of duty in Iraq, a third in Afghanistan. It wasn’t an enemy bullet that turned him into a quadriplegic. Suffering invisible wounds from post traumatic stress disorder, he attempted suicide in 2011. By the time he arrived in Tampa, his mother recalls Robert was eating a regular diet, moved about the grounds with his power chair and went on outings everyday. However, his condition deteriorated and in March of this year Monte told V.A. Secretary McDonald, she wanted her son “out of this grave yard.”

TAMPA, FL (WFLA) – The mother of a U.S. Army soldier claims the military sent her son to fight a war at the James A. Haley Veterans Administration hospital without ammunition.

Monte Reinhardt claims her quadriplegic son received substandard care, contracted infections and lived in unsanitary conditions. Her son Army Specialist Robert Bradford was a patient at Haley’s Spinal Cord Injury Center for three years.

“He didn’t really receive top notch care, he really didn’t,” Monte stated.

So earlier this year she fired off a letter to V.A. secretary Robert McDonald complaining of “unsafe staffing levels, no respect for sanitation practices,” pointing out Robert’s gums “are near rotten.”

“When I would brush his teeth, and I would not be rushed, the toothbrush would be bloody,” Monte added.

She wrote McDonald, that Robert contracted “a new infection weekly.”

“He would have a U.T.I.(urinary tract infection) and a couple of times it would get to the point where it was just flat out red,” she explained.

Robert died two days after surgery. His uniform shirt now hangs on a chair in her apartment.

The flag that draped his casket sits on a cabinet beside an urn that contains his ashes. read more here

Enlisted Soldiers Most Likely to Attempt Suicide

Back from work and here is the update.

First begin with the simple fact that all recruits received physical and psychological testing. That ends up leaving one question. If they are now saying these soldiers had preexisting conditions, then their tests failed to find mental health illnesses.

Then it moves onto the biggest question of all. Since the DOD has been doing Battlemind followed by Comprehensive Soldier Fitness as "prevention" programs, then why were they not even good enough to prevent non-deployed soldiers from wanting to die? How did they expect these programs to work on the deployed when they failed the "non-deployed?" Then how did they expect them to help the soldiers with multiple deployments?

As for Congress, why did they allow the DOD to keep spending millions/billions on the same programs when military suicides went up instead of down?

Those are basic questions that have not been answered. I doubt the brass has even been asked to explain any of that.

This is from the first DOD Suicide Report

The DoD’s Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee (SPARRC) provides a venue for collaboration among the Services’ Suicide Prevention Program Managers (SPPMs) and other stakeholders in the DoD’s suicide prevention mission. A standardized DoD suicide surveillance system was identified as a key goal. SPARRC developed a collaborative plan to synchronize surveillance efforts across Services while also seeking to maintain flexibility to address Service-specific needs. A web-based data collection process was identified as a key goal, and in 2007, a project plan was collaboratively developed with suicide surveillance program managers of all Services (Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps). An effort was made to develop a DoD system that built on the best characteristics from each of the Service-specific programs while also mapping, where possible, to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) to facilitate comparisons between military and civilian data. The resulting DoDSER uses an epidemiological data collection form to collect standardized data on suicide behaviors among Service Members. The DoDSER was launched 1 January 2008. All the Services are collecting DoDSERs on military suicide deaths [4]. The Army is also collecting DoDSERs on non-fatal suicide behaviors (see Annex B).

This report provides statistics for Calendar Year (CY) 2008, with detailed tables presented for DoDSER items. Annexes and Appendices include a copy of the DoDSER 2008 items, Service-specific data summaries, and additional analyses conducted on deployment status (Army only).

There were a total of 268 Service Member suicides in CY 2008 (Army = 140; Air Force = 45; Navy = 41; Marine Corps = 42). This includes 12 Reservists and 21 National Guard members on Active Duty (Army = 24; Air Force = 6; Navy = 1; Marine Corps = 2). The total of 268 cases includes cases that are pending final determination by the AFMES but are strongly suspected to be suicides by the DoD’s Suicide Prevention and Risk Reduction Committee (SPARRC).

Most had been treated for mental health

Yes 125 52%
Within 30 days 71 30%
Within 90 days (inclusive)a 95 40%

For 2009 DOD Suicide Report

The AFMES indicates that 309 Service Members died by suicide in 2009 (Air Force = 46; Army = 164; Marine Corps = 52; Navy = 47). This number includes deaths strongly suspected to be suicides but pending final determination.

The DOD added in deployment factors

Most suicides did not occur in theater. There were ten suicides (3%) in Operation Enduring Freedom and 33 (11%) in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Fifty-one percent of decedents had a history of deployment to Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom, and 7% had a history of multiple deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, or Kuwait. • Seventeen percent of decedents had reportedly experienced direct combat operations.

Now you get the idea. Just wish members of Congress did. If they had years ago, more lives could have been saved, less soldiers would have been kicked out instead of helped and as for veterans, they would not have ended up facing the higher likelihood of death back home than during combat.

You can read the read the reports here

DoDSER Annual Reports
CY 2013 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2012 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2011 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2010 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2009 DoDSER Annual Report
CY 2008 DoDSER Annual Report

Check back later on this and I'll break it down for you. For now, it is not saying anything new and things are far from improved for those who said, "I'll risk my life for you." You'll see what I mean around 5:00 pm.

Newer Army soldiers found most likely to attempt suicide
Study says risk high for women, school dropouts
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Lindsey Tanner
JULY 09, 2015

CHICAGO — Wartime suicide attempts in the Army are most common in newer enlisted soldiers who have not been deployed, while officers are less likely to try to end their lives. At both levels, attempts are more common among women and those without a high school diploma, according to a study billed as the most comprehensive analysis of a problem that has plagued the US military.

Suicides in the military have gotten the most attention, but attempts sometimes have different contributing factors. They’re ‘‘an opportunity to intervene,’’ said Dr. Robert Ursano, psychiatry chairman at the Uniformed Services University and the study’s lead author.

The study analyzed records on nearly 10,000 suicide attempts among almost 1 million active-duty Army members during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, from 2004 to 2009. That compares with 569 Army suicide deaths during the same period reported by researchers last year in a different phase of the same study. Rates for both increased during that time.
read more here