Improving Care to Prevent Suicide Among People with Serious Mental Illness Proceedings of a Workshop (2019) / Chapter Skim
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4 Military Service Members and Veterans
4 Military Service Members and Veterans
Pages 45-56
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From page 45... ...
• Within this effort, selective and indicated interventions include expansion of mental health care services and eligibility, lethal means safety training, expansion and dissemination of the Veterans Crisis Line, and enhancement of discharge planning and follow-up. (Franklin)
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From page 46... ...
PREVALENCE AND INTERVENTIONS Suicide rates have been going up for veterans as well as for the general population, said Mike Colston, captain in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps and director of Mental Health Programs in the Health Services and Policy Oversight Office of the Department of Defense (DoD)
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From page 47... ...
In addition, many people not just in clinical care but in mental health care feel that their treatments are stigmatizing and that they want to get confidential care. Or perhaps they want care from a chaplain or from the community, said Colston.
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From page 48... ...
In addition, Israel does not have easy access to weapons in its civilian population and weapon owners are trained to safely store and use their weapons. The United States, in contrast, is "awash in weapons," and even though the DoD population is prescreened for mental health conditions prior to entry, the availability of guns offsets that advantage.
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Franklin listed these risk factors for suicide: • Prior suicide attempt • Mental health issues • Substance abuse • Access to lethal means
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Its selective interventions include a mental health hiring initiative, lethal means safety training, mental health care for other than honorably discharged veterans, an executive order to expand veteran eligibility for mental health care, "telemental" health, and Veterans Crisis Line information printed on VA canteen receipts. Its indicated interventions include discharge planning and follow-up enhancements, expansion of the Veterans Crisis Line, and postvention follow-up care for family members and friends of someone who has died by suicide.
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From page 51... ...
program, which uses data to identify veterans at high risk of suicide, notifies VHA providers of the risk assessment, and allows providers to reevaluate and enhance veterans' care. Those engaged in REACH VET have more health care appointments, fewer inpatient mental health admissions, and lower all-cause mortality, she said.
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From page 52... ...
The VA Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Guidebook highlights information on these services and related programs that address the mental health needs of veterans and their families.2 In addition, the VA has a community provider toolkit with free online training for veterans issues, including military culture, for health care providers.3 It has a suicide risk management consultative program that provides free consultation for any provider who serves veterans at risk for suicide.4 In collaboration with PsychArmor, the VA has prepared a 25-minute basic training that people can take online.5 The Veterans Crisis Line and the Military Crisis Line have been expanding and have been getting about 2,000 calls per day, with 60 to 70 saves being made each day, said Franklin. "They're doing extraordinary work.
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From page 53... ...
Contagion appears to be playing a part, "but we don't have a good enough understanding." He added that stigma is still "a huge issue and one that we haven't done well enough on." For example, the fear that soldiers will lose their security clearances because of a mental health diagnosis is prevalent, though this happens very rarely. In response to a question about whether the attributes of military personnel or veterans have changed over time -- for example, after 9/11 -- Colston noted that the Defense Manpower Data Center collects extensive demographic data, and the trend has been toward military personnel who are more educated and have fewer problems than in the past.
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" Colston picked up on that point, observing that chaplains have to know how to render mental health care. He also reiterated the value of the crisis lines, which are a good way to reach people who are not getting medical care.
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2010. Decrease in suicide rates after a change of policy reducing access to firearms in adolescents: A naturalistic epidemiological study.
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