Awareness is always good to have when it comes to suicide, but with the uptick in memes and post about how its being done wrong and a uptick in disgruntled posts showing disappointment. Are these signs that what is currently being done isn't enough or not thought out enough.
Posted Aug 25, 2019, 7:40 PM UTC
I believe they are trying to enact a culture shift within the military where people don't feel as isolated. Their answer for now is down days and awareness campaigns designed to discourage isolation and promote a sense of community at the squadron level.
Mandatory fun runs might not be the best way forward, but I think CSAF & CMSAF are making some progress on the unit culture front. At least in my experience.
I'm not maintenance though, which is where a lot of the burnout is happening.
Many different diseases contribute to suicide, but fundamentally, suicide occurs when our airmen don't see any better options. Unfortunately, we can't force supervisors and commanders to give a shit about their people, and when airmen don't trust their chain of command, we've thrown away all of our institutional tools to help.
Well stated. I have an old flight commander who was an LT who took her life many years ago, while I don’t know the circumstances surrounding it, it’s clear that the AF could’ve did more even if that meant letting her separate.
The military will exacerbate the stress of those who are at a high risk of depression and suicide. In some circumstances, you almost have to be perfect to avoid the wrath of punishment or consequences the military has at its disposal if you don’t meet the standards. Just think about the stress involving a PT exam, additional duties, and deployments, it’s enough to make some folks lose it.
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Been in for fair amount of time, and I'm still depressed after these briefings lol
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I've personally known 4 people who went to mental health for suicidal thoughts and here we are, years later, and all of them are still serving without ever having their TS clearances affected.
You need to stop this fearmongering bullshit because it's dorm lawyers like you who scare people out of getting help.
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The key here is "years later." I have been through the mental health process twice now. The first time I lost a deployment. The second time, I lost out on 3 important TDYs. Call it what you want, but these were consequences of my choice to go in and get help and it did effect my career. That being said. The first time I went to mental health I was able to open a box of emotions and experiences that were threatening to tear my family apart. The second round of mental health saved my life. I am a huge advocate for going to mental health. There are always consequences, good and bad, for making that choice but the good has always outweighed the bad for me. Years from now I will look back at a full life and from the outside it will appear as though nothing was lost. In moment there was loss, and it was worth it.
Your experience that it was worth any possible career implications needs to be advertised more. Your life is worth more than your AF career.
That said, the "years later" in my comment was inclusive, 3 of the 4 never lost access to their jobs and the 1 who did was only out for about 2 months while he received treatment.
Majority of people that commit suicide have one or more issues that put them into crisis (relationship, financial, legal/administrative, mental health, etc). However, I think the Air Force and local leadership can exacerbate problems people are already having.
That said, I think awareness is about the most Big Blue can directly do. Every thread is people just complaining about Ops Tempo and Manning. While I'm sure there's leaders at all levels that possibly make things worse than they can/should be, no one in the Air Force chain of command has the ability to recruit more people, or reduce the conflicts we're in around the world.
So from a organizational perspective, the best method is likely to try and raise awareness by normalizing the conversation about suicide, help people to identify risk factors, and give people the resources to help and empower them make referrals when necessary.
From my experience over the last decade, people are for more likely now to take notice when something is wrong, and ask whether someone is thinking of hurting themselves. And that's whats going to make the biggest impact, people looking after each other.
This is probably the most level-headed response I've seen so far and I 1000% degree.