Air Force sees small dip in suicides compared to same period last year
Air Force Times
Diana Stancy Correll
April 4, 2020
Of those who have died by suicide this year, 30 were male and four were female. Twenty were enlisted personnel, eight were officers and six were Air Force civilians.
Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth Wright announced a one-day stand down to discuss resiliency and suicide prevention in a video released Aug. 1, 2019. (DVIDS)
The Air Force saw a small drop in total force suicides for the first quarter of 2020 when measured against this point of the year in 2019, according to the service.
The Air Force reported a total of 34 Air Force personnel have died by suicide as of March 31, including 20 active duty airmen. That number is down from the 41 suicides the Air Force reported across the entire force the end of March last year, officials said. read it here
Over and over again we read about responders not getting the mental health help they desperately need. After over 4 decades of research into what PTSD does, if the leaders have not managed to take care of their departments...do it yourself!
Stop waiting for someone else to begin taking care of you and the people you risk your life with. If they are still so ignorant they have not managed to provide you with the proper support, do it for each other. After all, peer support is what works best. It can only work if you learn all you can to be able to respond with facts, as well as encouragement.
The longer you wait, the more will die by their own hands because of what their jobs did to them!
You already their trust, because they trust you with their lives, as you trust them with yours.
Open your mouth if you think someone you know is struggling instead of fearing how they will judge you. If you still fear talking about PTSD, then that is your problem and you need to overcome it. Learn what it is and why you have it and then you will see that it is a price you are paying for surviving what you lived through.
Start helping each other heal! Contact me if you have questions 407-754-7526
The world is in crisis now. The Coronavirus pandemic does not acknowledge national borders and has crossed over all the world. It strikes old and young, male and female.
Each nation has experienced great sadness. Some people have used this for their own sake. They have taken all they could, leaving many with nothing. They did not care if they spread death or not.
Yet all nations have also experienced acts of great kindness and compassion. When some risk their own lives so others may live. The list is long and worthy of so much more than simple expressions. When this is over, the world will be forever changed by what we do right here and right now.
When this season of misery is over, those who decided to take, shall be known for what they truly are and condemned for taking pleasure out of the suffering they caused.
When this season of misery is over, those who decided to give, shall be known for what they truly are and treasured for all they were willing to do for the sake of others.
When this season of misery is over, they will mourn for those they could not save and we shall comfort them.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
When this is over, the rich who used this time for their own profit shall be known for what they truly are.
Proverbs 22:16
Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.
The rich, who decided to use their wealth to help others, will be known for what they truly are.
Proverbs 19:17
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! Didn’t God choose poor people in the world to become rich in faith and to receive the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?
6 Yet, you show no respect to poor people. Don’t rich people oppress you and drag you into court?
7 Don’t they curse the good name of Jesus, the name that was used to bless you?
And those who did whatever they could for the sake of others, shall be known for what they truly are.
We Show Our Faith by What We Do
14 My brothers and sisters, what good does it do if someone claims to have faith but doesn’t do any good things? Can this kind of faith save him?
15 Suppose a believer, whether a man or a woman, needs clothes or food
16 and one of you tells that person, “God be with you! Stay warm, and make sure you eat enough.” If you don’t provide for that person’s physical needs, what good does it do?
17 In the same way, faith by itself is dead if it doesn’t cause you to do any good things.
Let us know who shall be blessed when this misery passes and let this be our solum vow, "to take this moment and live each moment" choosing to be defined by what we can be....worthy.
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
2 and he began to teach them.
He said:
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Man pushed in front of El train, killed was Marine who served in Afghanistan
WGN9 News
by: Tonya Francisco
Posted: Apr 8, 2020
Al Balde calls that good news, but says he can’t help but struggle with encouraging his son to join the military, saying he came back with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after his second tour in 2015.
CHICAGO — Family members say a former Marine who served two tours in Afghanistan was killed in a Chicago subway tunnel Tuesday after he was pushed onto the tracks and struck by a Red Line train.
Al Balde and his daughter came to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office Wednesday to identify the body of 27-year-old Mamadou Balde, who was killed Tuesday. read it here
Reno man charged with stealing surgical masks from VA hospital
Las Vegas Review-Journal
By Katelyn Newberg
April 8, 2020
A Reno man is accused of stealing hundreds of surgical masks from a Veterans Affairs medical center, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Peter Lucas, 35, was arrested Tuesday in Reno and appeared Wednesday in federal court in connection with the theft from the Ioannis A. Lougaris VA Medical Center, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. He is charged with one count of theft of health care property.
“Our military veterans served on the front lines to protect our country, and now our health professionals are doing the same in our fight against COVID-19,” U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich said in a statement. “We will not allow the theft of personal protective equipment to go undeterred, endangering the safety of doctors, nurses, and other health professionals protecting our communities.” read it here
I am going to start this the way I usually end a video...with what you are empowered to do. "...go do the best things in life...make the most of the rest of your life."
Right now the world is living through global pandemic trauma. Life as they knew it ended. As of yesterday "There are at least 387,547 cases of coronavirus in the United States and at least 12,291 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases." according to a CNN running update. That means at least that many have experienced the trauma of fighting for their lives. Even more have experienced the trauma of it coming into their families and the fear of it happening to those who have thus far escaped it. While some people take a callous attitude to take advantage of the trauma, many more are going out to make sure others stay alive, even if it means they are subjecting themselves to more trauma. Aside from hurricanes and this pandemic, I survived life altering trauma 10 times. I know what it can do to lives, but the key is, only if we allow it to gain control. This is from ABC News
Calls to US helpline jump 891%, as White House is warned of mental health crisis
Last month the “Disaster Distress Helpline” at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) saw an 891% increase in call volume compared with March 2019, according to a spokesman for the agency, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. In fact, this March – ending little more than a week ago – saw 338% more calls to the helpline than in the month before, when the deadly virus began to take hold inside the U.S. homeland, and government officials began taking more extreme measures to stop its spread.
There are 57.8 million Americans currently living with mental or substance use disorders, according to SAMHSA.
Two ways to look at the report are, it is terrible that many are in crisis, or, there are many more fighting for their lives and acknowledging they need help. Please take that as a sign it is OK to ask for help if you need it too. But what else can we do against something we have no control over? Look at what we can control. We can control how we act and react. We control what we do if we are healthy enough to help others. We control if we act out of kindness and patience, or react with selfishness. We control if we show that we are suffering too and are afraid to comfort someone else, or react with judgement unwilling to show we are not super-human. read it here
