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WWW.<strong>MHCE</strong>.US Monthly <strong>Newsletter</strong> | 9<br />
official with direct knowledge of<br />
the policy's release told Military.<br />
com on the condition of anonymity<br />
to speak openly about the process.<br />
In May, Military.com reported on<br />
the death of Spc. Austin Valley,<br />
an infantryman assigned to the 1st<br />
Infantry Division at Fort Riley,<br />
Kansas. His unit found him during<br />
an attempted suicide while they<br />
were deployed to Poland. After<br />
sending him back to Kansas, he died<br />
by suicide 30 days later. He was not<br />
There are also suggestions in the<br />
document that safe gun storage and<br />
National Guardsmen and Reservists<br />
temporarily relinquishing their<br />
personal firearms to a military arms<br />
room would be helpful, but those<br />
situations would be voluntary and<br />
the policy suggests those actions<br />
can quickly get ensnared in local<br />
legal protections.<br />
But much of the new rule set<br />
is seemingly incomplete, or, as<br />
another Army official noted, "wasn't<br />
also known to face greater risk of<br />
suicide.<br />
The form for commanders to collect<br />
data on a soldier who died asks<br />
for over 100 data points, including<br />
whether the soldier was diagnosed<br />
with sleep disorders or whether<br />
family members expressed any<br />
concerns. But it does not require<br />
a review of the soldier's social<br />
media history, where troops are<br />
increasingly asking for help and<br />
posting suicide notes.<br />
service, as Facebook's user base<br />
grows in age and X, formally known<br />
as Twitter, is a poor and narrow<br />
sampling of the demographics of<br />
the rank and file. On the forum,<br />
Kinmuan says about once a month<br />
a soldier posts something that<br />
requires immediate intervention,<br />
such as a suicide note. Grinston's<br />
office previously worked with the<br />
moderation team on Reddit, but that<br />
social media outreach has faded<br />
after his retirement.<br />
transferred into inpatient care, and<br />
he sought mental health care outside<br />
of the military on his own dime after<br />
his return to the U.S. In interviews<br />
with Military.com, his parents say<br />
there were no meaningful actions<br />
by the Army to keep him safe. His<br />
unit seemingly had no checklist to<br />
make sure he had all the resources<br />
he needed or mitigated his access to<br />
means of killing himself.<br />
A Military.com review of more<br />
than 300 suicides in the force in<br />
well thought-out." A form meant to<br />
track data on suspected suicides<br />
still requests that commanders note<br />
whether the deceased soldier has a<br />
passing score on the Army Physical<br />
Fitness Test, or APFT, a test that<br />
is no longer in use by the service.<br />
Another direction highlights that<br />
so-called "shame events" can<br />
lead to a suicide, but at the top of<br />
a list of those at risk, the doctrine<br />
highlights perpetrators of abuse, but<br />
doesn't mention victims who are<br />
"Soldiers are on social media. To<br />
completely avoid that space is<br />
crazy," Kinmuan, the moderator of<br />
the Army Reddit forum who asked<br />
to be identified by their username<br />
in order to protect their identity,<br />
told Military.com. "The Army isn't<br />
looking or thinking about social<br />
media being an avenue for these<br />
communications."<br />
The Army Reddit forum is<br />
effectively the town square for the<br />
Going forward, the service is<br />
planning new initiatives set to<br />
reduce the risk of suicide by firearms<br />
and medication, though there is no<br />
clear timeline on those efforts.<br />
"We recognize that suicide is a<br />
complex problem that defies a onesize-fits-all<br />
solution but we will<br />
continue to actively lean forward,"<br />
Lt. Gen. Kevin Vereen, who<br />
oversees quality of life policies in<br />
the Army.<br />
recent years shows that death by a<br />
self-inflicted gunshot wound is the<br />
most common method of suicide,<br />
with male junior enlisted and young<br />
noncommissioned officers being<br />
the most at-risk demographics.<br />
The new doctrine outlines some<br />
broad guidelines, establishing<br />
that commanders should consider<br />
quartering soldiers on base if<br />
they have suicidal ideation and<br />
own personal firearms. But the<br />
document is unclear on when those<br />
dramatic steps should be taken.<br />
Multiple Army officials with direct<br />
knowledge of how the policy was<br />
written said there is hesitation<br />
to outline guidance, in fear that<br />
commanders will stick too closely<br />
to doctrine and not view suicide<br />
risks as unique, but those officials<br />
agreed that offering no guidance is<br />
also a risk.