How to address veteran suicide–other than filming ourselves doing pushups, I mean.
I’ve done the 22 pushups-thing. Other than giving my giant mutt unfettered access to thoroughly tongue my ears, I can’t say they accomplished much. That’s not completely true–my ears are sparkly clean–but that wasn’t the point.
The short videos were supposed to help raise awareness that an alarming number of veterans are choosing to take their own lives. I don’t know who started the whole campaign but I think it has, thankfully, run its course.
Veteran suicide, on the other hand, hasn’t gone away. Funny thing, that. Letting folks know about the problem is one thing. Addressing it is another.
For all its faults, the Veterans Administration is trying to do just that. They’ve come up with a ten-year plan outlined in the National Strategy for Preventing Veteran Suicide 2018-2028.
One of that document’s opening statements is “Suicide prevention is VA’s highest priority . . . Mental health and crisis support services are critical for people showing signs of suicide risks in their thoughts or behaviors, but we must go beyond engaging mental health providers, to involve the broader community and reach Veterans where they live and thrive–before they reach a crisis point.”
It is that final phrase “–before they reach a crisis point.” that motivated me to put this post together. Helping veterans understand and address the very normal challenges of coming home–before they reach a crisis point— is what my books are all about.
The further I read, the more I realized that my books, specifically Continuing Actions, directly addresses two of the fourteen primary goals the VA lays out toward reducing veteran suicide.
Here are the VA’s stated goals, and how Continuing Actions helps achieve them.
Goal 2. Implement research-informed communication efforts designed to prevent Veteran suicide by changing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.
How do you change knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among veterans and “soon to be” veterans? Well, a sure way not to is to hold a safety-stand-down style briefing where scholars, doctors, and mental health professionals tell a fidgeting sea of bored faces things they don’t want to hear because they’re all daydreaming about the upcoming 72 and besides, what do those guys on the stage know about being in the sh*t, anyway?
I think a better way is to encourage veterans to help each other. It’s what we did while we were in the service, it’s what we should do once we get out. How? Not that hard, actually:
–Encourage veterans to educate themselves about the challenges of coming home.
–Teach veterans the individual steps they can to take to help themselves and others.
–Normalize calling for support when it’s needed. Nobody thinks twice about calling for arty or gunships in a firefight. Calling a crisis line isn’t any different.
All of this, and more, is explained in detail in Continuing Actions. I wrote it expressly to provide a starting point for changing veterans’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.
Goal 3. Increase knowledge of the factors that offer Veterans protection from suicidal behaviors and that promote their wellness and recovery.
How do you convince someone who’d willingly give up his/her own life to save a buddy that they need to take care of themselves, first? That’s a tough one, and only one who’s been there has a hope in hell of accomplishing it.
Fact is, if you don’t go through the hard work of addressing your own issues, how can you expect to be able to help your buddies through theirs? Unless you can fake it like a TV preacher, you won’t be able to find the right words to comfort the trembling voice on the other end of the phone when they’re standing on the edge of oblivion.
That’s where Continuing Actions can help. In it, I lay out the reasons veterans have an obligation to face up to and address their own personal challenges of coming home before trying to help others. You don’t have to look far to find examples of veterans who skipped that critical step and went straight into helping others only to fall victim to their own, unaddressed, demons.
Once a veteran has taken that first step of facing their own challenges, Continuing Actions offers pragmatic suggestions for how to navigate them. It’s not rocket surgery, but it’s damn near impossible if the veteran doesn’t step up and face the challenges head-on. Continuing Actions harnesses the power of camaraderie to motivate veterans to take an active role in promoting their own wellbeing and recovery, first.
Two out of the VA’s fourteen major goals to reduce veteran suicide are addressed in one book? That’s not too shabby.
If you’d like to help reduce veteran suicide you could watch more pushup videos, but might I suggest you buy some copies of Continuing Actions for the veterans in your life, instead?
It might be just the push “up” they need.
Thanks for reading.
