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12 | <strong>MHCE</strong> - News www.mhce.us SEPTEMBER <strong>2023</strong> EDITION<br />
by talking about his own struggles while<br />
routinely highlighting policy changes to<br />
the press.<br />
But this new suicide prevention doctrine,<br />
once touted by Army leadership ahead of<br />
its arrival as a key tool for combating the<br />
problem, was quietly completed without<br />
fanfare. Grinston's successor, Sergeant<br />
Major of the Army Michael Weimer,<br />
hasn't publicly mentioned the new policy.<br />
Weimer's office did not return requests for<br />
comment.<br />
The doctrine itself directs Army officials<br />
to highlight the new policy to the press as<br />
a means of assuring soldiers know of its<br />
existence.<br />
But burying the release of the policy was<br />
intentional, according to multiple Army<br />
officials interviewed by Military.com,<br />
largely due to the fact that the doctrine<br />
is years behind schedule and offers little<br />
help for units struggling to curtail deaths<br />
by suicides, as service leaders promised<br />
Congress.<br />
"This regulation is a step in the right<br />
direction; at the same time, we're<br />
cognizant this isn't the be-all, end-all. We<br />
have more work to do," one Army official<br />
with direct knowledge of the policy's<br />
release told Military.com on the condition<br />
of anonymity to speak openly about the<br />
process.<br />
In May, Military.com reported on the death<br />
of Spc. Austin Valley, an infantryman<br />
assigned to the 1st Infantry Division at<br />
Fort Riley, Kansas. His unit found him<br />
during an attempted suicide while they<br />
were deployed to Poland. After sending<br />
him back to Kansas, he died by suicide<br />
30 days later. He was not transferred<br />
into inpatient care, and he sought mental<br />
health care outside of the military on his<br />
own dime after his return to the U.S. In<br />
interviews with Military.com, his parents<br />
say there were no meaningful actions<br />
by the Army to keep him safe. His unit<br />
seemingly had no checklist to make sure<br />
he had all the resources he needed or<br />
mitigated his access to means of killing<br />
himself.