Personal Injury Law

Army Announces New Suicide Prevention Tool for Soldiers

By Bruce Stern

Last week I reported on a fascinating lecture I attended at the NABIS medical legal conference in New Orleans.  Readers will recall that at that presentation, Dr. Mary Hibbard of Mount Sinai Medical Center discussed the increased suicide following traumatic brain injury of our soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that the army has unveiled a unique prevention tool-an interactive video to be mandatory viewing army-wide - in order to address the alarming record rate of suicide in its ranks.  The video features soldiers role playing that of an anguished infantry training man and make virtual choices that lead the character to get help or in the worst case shoot himself in the head.  The video is entitled “Beyond the Front” and “leads the viewer through a detailed drama in which [the infantryman] is hit by relationship troubles, financial problems and scraps with the law - what army research shows are major events that precipitate suicide.” 

While this is certainly an excellent first step to address the problem, it is more important that the military address one of the major underlying problems, that of making sure that our soldiers returning from war obtain the appropriate screen for traumatic brain injury and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and most important obtain the needed medical care to address these injuries.

Full post as published by Traumatic Brain Injury Law Blog on October 16, 2008 (boomark / email).