Health | October 09, 2008 | 13 comments

Army's life-or-death drama: To combat suicides, service introduces interactive video

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/07/AR2008100702780.html?wpisrc=...

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starr111
Alarmed by a record rate of suicide in its ranks, the Army yesterday unveiled a unique prevention tool -- an interactive video to be mandatory viewing Army-wide -- in which soldiers will play the role of an anguished infantryman and make virtual choices that lead the character to get help or, in the worst case, shoot himself in the head.

"This is you: Specialist Kyle Norton," a male narrator begins, putting soldiers in the boots of a 19-year-old Midwesterner after a bomb-clearing mission in Iraq.

The video, titled "Beyond the Front," leads the viewer through a detailed drama in which Norton is hit by relationship troubles, financial problems and scrapes with the law -- what Army research shows are major events that precipitate suicide. Norton is blindsided by an e-mail from his fiancee, who has become pregnant by another man. He is devastated further when one of his best friends is killed in an ambush.

Questions pop onto the screen at key moments, prompting the viewer to decide whether to get help -- by opening up with buddies, Norton's sergeant or a chaplain. Depending on the choices, Norton edges toward recovery or sinks deeper into suicidal thoughts. The goal is to immerse the viewer into Norton's life in a way that makes preventive lessons stick, say Army officials and the video's creators.

The video is one of several initiatives launched by the Army to try to stem the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers. That rate increased from 12.4 per 100,000 in 2003, when the Iraq war started, to 18.1 per 100,000 last year.


This year, 93 active-duty soldiers killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. In all of 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide. Suicide attempts by soldiers have also increased since 2003.

If the trend continues, the death rate this year is likely to exceed that of a demographically similar segment of the U.S. population -- 19.5 per 100,000, Stephens said -- which has not happened since the Vietnam War
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13 comments // Army's life-or-death drama: To combat suicides, service introduces interactive video

  • 82ndFree_ThankGod
  • 82ndFree_ThankGod
  • WisconsinNorm
    • 0
      WisconsinNorm  

    • I will always remember when my younger brother returned home from his term of service as a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam...He was an animal on a hot skillet.

      He was sent with other pilots to Panama for many months after his combat.

      We visited him while in Panama mostly because our family was so concerned about him. He was much better. It was in Panama where we learned from other pilots just what they had just gone through and what a terrific bunch of soldiers they all were...

      You must "decompress" these guys returning home--take there families with them--pay for it taxpayer!
      Help them get their minds back to normal.

      My brother was single at the time, this new fight is done with many married men and women--big, big, difference.

      Take the time to talk to a terrorist war veteran--you meet them at a bar or in a Wal-Mart--let them know you appreciate what they did. I know it sounds crazy but buy them a hair cut if you see them in uniform at the shop--Their appreciation will make you cry.

      I e-mailed my bastard congressman, uniformed soldiers should never have to pay for a haircut.

    • 3 years ago
  • seeker561
    • 0
      seeker561  
    • Image

    • Army recruiter Nils Aron Andersson sat behind the wheel of his brand-new Ford F-150, firing round after round into the truck's CD player and radio with a .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol. ......

      When Andersson killed himself on March 6, 2007, he became one of at least 16 Army recruiters to commit suicide nationwide since 2000. Five of those suicides occurred in Texas, including three at the Houston Recruiting Battalion, where Andersson worked after serving two tours of duty in Iraq.

      From the Houston Chronicle

    • 3 years ago
  • bishopobispo
  • mcamca
    • 0
      mcamca  

    • I don't know about the interaction but this part of it, the video, didn't sound right to me. maybe you have to be there to understand this video. maybe.

      why wouldn't they let the us soldiers watch the "redacted" show them why suicide is happening? us soldiers raping 15y.o. girl and getting no punishment - this might be the reason for other soldiers, who see all this to commit suicide. us soldiers are always right just because they "bring democracy" to wherever? BS! the toughest ones are heros. the ones who know how to use there brain become victimes. don't send them there and mayby, just mayby the suicide rate will get down.

    • 3 years ago
  • cantucwearebrothers
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • And one of the principal reasons why these relationships break is because the person has changed because of this dehumanization of both enemy and self. They are no longer the people they were before being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

      I too have done some suicide prevention hotline work, so I understand very well that things are not simple.

    • 3 years ago
  • browneyedlibrarian
  • starr111
    • 0
      starr111  

    • The United States needs to address these issues. The military doesn't pick the wars, they fight them.

      The public could do a lot of good for these boys(and girls!), we all should try to let these veteran's lean on us.

      A program that provides a step by step re-introduction to civilian life would pay for itself in lives ten fold. These people are just thrown back in with all of us who aren't for these wars and it's breaking our country's most patriotic souls. People who deal with real trauma have a really tough time coming back to America. The 9/11 responders showed signs of depression as well as victims and witnesses to 9/11 and no one in government would provide these people with mental health care. Not even our 9/11 responders!!!! That is immoral!

    • 3 years ago
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • Perhaps the military ought to address the causes of such suicides, such as fighting illegal wars of aggression based on lies, or not being able to cope with the dehumanization of enemies and self.

    • 3 years ago
  • bishopobispo
  • starr111
    • 0
      starr111  

    • Hope that this helps... even if it prevents one of our soldiers from falling it's worked. I feel that more should be done!! Much of this is because the war has become unpopular! Support your troops!!

    • 3 years ago
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