Suicidal Cases in the Military in the US - Coursework Example

 The Department of Defense tries to reduce the number of suicidal cases in the military and restrain further soldiers from suicide every year. These attempts range from quarterly suicide prevention training from chaplains to yearly mental health checkups to increases in mental health resources. But despite all of the attempts made by the Department of Defense to curb the growing number of suicides within the active duty population, suicide is the top cause of deaths in the military since 2012 with over 250 active duty service members have taken their lives annually. Another 130 have taken their lives in the first six months of 2015 (Franklin, 2015). The actions made by the Department of Defense are not working. Military hierarchy misunderstands mental health issues within their own group due to a leadership deficiency in their ranks and as a result, military suicides will continue to happen in heartbreaking numbers (Suicide and suicide prevention in the Canadian Armed Forces). The military lifestyle presents many stressors that the civilian population are not accustomed to. A soldier’s day typically starts by waking up early to participate in group physical training. If a soldier lives on base, their leadership are required to inspect the soldier’s living space to military standard. After physical training is completed, personal hygiene is done followed by attending a work accountability formation where a soldier’s personal appearance is also inspected to military standard. After all that, the soldier will perform their vocationally trained duties. In addition, soldiers often have to perform ‘details’ or additional duties like military base landscaping. If any of those daily duties are not completed to military standard, the soldier is subject to corrective physical training, evening additional labor, partial forfeiture of monthly pay, or reduction in a soldiers rank. Those stressors are not only difficult for the soldier, but for any dependents a soldier may have as well. “The U.S. military cannot avoid the stark reality of suicide entirely. Service members and veterans reflect the broader American public, which not only suffers from suicide, but also stigmatizes mental health care. Further, some service members enter military service with mental health challenges and we should not conclude that serving in the military caused these suicides. For instance, 31 percent of Army suicides are associated with factors from the years prior to entering the Army” (Losing the Battle The Challenge of Military Suicide). While serving in the military, a soldier is provided a chain of command or hierarchy of leadership to provide the soldier with duties and assist in any of the soldier’s needs. These leaders have taken training on how to complete a mission, take care of given soldiers and uphold an ethical standard. Unfortunately, there are too many stories what the Army classifies as ‘toxic leadership’. Army Doctrine Publication 6-22 states: "Toxic leadership is a combination of self-centered attitudes, motivations, and behaviors that have adverse effects on subordinates, the organization, and mission performance. This leader lacks concern for others and the climate of the organization, which leads to short- and long-term negative effects. The toxic leader operates with an inflated sense of self-worth and from acute self-interest. Toxic leaders consistently use dysfunctional behaviors to deceive, intimidate, coerce, or unfairly punish others to get what they want for themselves. The negative leader completes short-term requirements by operating at the bottom of the continuum of commitment, where followers respond to the positional power of their leader to fulfill requests. This may achieve results in the short term, but ignores the other leader competency categories of leads and develops. Prolonged use of negative leadership to influence followers undermines the followers' will, initiative, and potential and destroys unit morale" (Department of the Army). The number of toxic leaders can make a soldier hesitant toward communicating with a leader even if their leader is not. Originally, one of the main assumptions was that the wars and the stressors of deployment were the main reason in the growing number of active duty suicides. This has proven to be inaccurate. According to a recent study from the Journal of the American Medical Association, the active duty suicide rate was similar between soldiers who have previously deployed and soldiers who have never deployed. The military hierarchy in charge also thought that by the end of the wars, the number of military suicide cases will reduce. The military leadership fails to understand that the mental health and overall welfare are separate, unique and individual. The assumption that the end of these wars will be the end of military suicides done on active duty is an illogical generalization. By the end of the wars, the mental health needy could have already taken their lives and thus will be too late for a remedy. The best way of curbing military suicide of active duty soldiers is solving the root causes of the deteriorating mental health condition. Most military soldiers find it difficult to cope up with their tough duties and, therefore, some become stressed and desperate. To reduce their levels of stress, some opt to use drugs to suppress their stressful life conditions and many get addicted. Mental health can be affected by some factors like addiction to marijuana, alcohol or drug abuse, which in most times affects the rightful human senses of a normal person (Bond et al., 2010). The same applies to military soldiers, who out of external factors like stress or alcohol and drug addiction, become mentally distorted into thinking that committing suicide is the quick relief from their many problems. The risk of military suicide attempts is increased by such factors and the best solution when noticed in any military soldier by the military leadership in charge, is to handle such a soldier individually by guiding him or her to visit a psychiatrist. The earlier the soldier visits a psychiatrist, the better to avoid attempts like suicide (Joiner, 2010). The military management team has even had the assumption that the fewer recruitments done in a year, the higher the number of military suicides in active duty. The military leaders are failing to curb the increasing suicide cases properly by making irrational assumptions. Recruitments in no way relate to the causes of military suicides. Mental health disorder is the main cause of military suicide is even suffered by non-military people who aspire to join the military forces. Therefore, most of the military recruits suffer from mental disorder before they get into active duty. Most of them suffered the mental health condition a long time ago in their past life before joining the military life due to some addictions like alcohol or drug abuse of marijuana. However, in such instances the burden of proof of qualifications of a military recruit shifts to the military management and the United States Unified Combatant Command body. The responsibility of these bodies is to ensure the soldiers been recruited in the military force are in proper mental conditions to reduce the risks of military suicides (Joiner, 2010). The military leadership fails to curb these military suicide problems because they still have the notion that the soldiers who are considered weak commit suicide acts. According to the management, a military soldier who commits suicide is termed as weak in defense duties of the nation and cannot even make a single fight successful. While this assumption spreads, others get the idea that soldiers who commit suicide were forced to join the military career and their feel they are not on their line of passion career. All these assumptions are not theoretically or practically based. The main reason troops commit suicide while in active duty is because of pressure and depression that affect their mental health, especially because soldiers joining the military career must declare themselves selfless to serve the nation effectively. The military forces do not form rights based organizations like trade unions for workers that can fight for their work rights. Therefore, soldiers suffer low wage pay, poor working conditions, and tough and strict terms and conditions of work. These are enough factors that can make a person suffer depression The reasons behind military suicide are similar to that in the civilian population. The way to combat suicides in the military are similar to the civilian population. The reason for the military leadership to curb these finally by solving the root causes of military suicide like drugs addiction, stress, and depression. The military leadership has not been successful to curb the increasing military suicide cases because they have concentrated enough on the behaviors of their own soldiers. Management’s misconceptions and slow reactions about mental health conditions have led at least in part to their failure to take action against military suicides. Their baseless assumptions that weakness of a soldier, deployment issues, and the false idea that the end of wars will end the suicide cases in the military has hindered them from realizing that individual-specific reasons are the problem. Military management has failed to do adequate checkups on the overall condition of their subordinate soldiers to determine what assistance may be required. Military leadership also fails to understand that despite some of these soldiers suffering a critical mental health condition before they even join the military, it is still the leader’s obligation to checkup and evaluate these soldiers. Tests should be done regularly in regards to mental health conditions to soldiers serving in the military on active duty. Bottom line, these active duty suicides will only improve when leadership improves References Franklin, K. (2015, September 15). Department of Defense Quarterly Suicide Report Calendar Year 2015 2nd Quarter. Retrieved October 28, 2015, from http://www.dspo.mil Bond, C., Hastings, P. R., Pollak, A. N., & Kling, J. (2010). 68W advanced field craft: Combat medic skills. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Joiner, T. (2010). Myths about suicide. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Department of the Army (2012, August 1) Army Leadership – ADP 6-22 Retrieved November 2, 2015 Suicide and suicide prevention in the Canadian Armed Forces. http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/news/article.page?doc=suicide-and-suicide-prevention-in-the-canadian-armed-forces/hgq87xvu. Retrieved December 7, 2015 Losing the Battle The Challenge of Military Suicide. http://www.cnas.org/files/documents/publications/CNAS_LosingTheBattle_HarrellBerglass.pdf. retrieved December 7, 2015 Read More