Officials seek ways to stem increasing military suicides

When Army Sgt. Coleman Bean left Iraq to resume his civilian life in New Jersey, he was a changed man.

No longer as outgoing, he appeared subdued and unfocused after two combat deployments. He also began drinking too much.

"I thought he just needed to unwind," said his mother, Linda Bean of East Brunswick. "I was just so grateful to have him home in one piece."

But inside, the 25-year-old veteran carried disturbing memories of Iraq, including one of women and children burning alive in a bus fire.

A few months after his 2008 homecoming, Bean couldn't deal with his feelings anymore. He wrecked his Jeep one night, was charged with DUI, and took a cab to his apartment in South River, Middlesex County, where he fatally shot himself.

He is one of a rising number of service members who have committed suicide in the last few years, generating nationwide outreach programs by military officials and civilian organizations hoping to stem the death toll.

Caregivers point to statistics showing 301 confirmed or suspected suicides last year among Army soldiers on active duty or inactive status. That compares with 242 in 2009.

In the Army National Guard, the number of self-inflicted deaths among inactive members rose to 114 last year, almost double the 62 in 2009.

"There are no universal solutions to address the complexities of personal, social, and behavioral health issues that lead to suicide within the Army," said Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director of the Army's health-promotion and risk-reduction task force, who has been working to reduce the suicide rate.

War-zone deployments, substance abuse, and marital and financial problems have been cited as factors in the suicides. Eighteen of the 301 deaths last year were of women, who generally seem more resilient than men, Army officials have said.

The increase in suicides "is like a death in your own family; it has all of our attention to the marrow of our bones," said Capt. Scott Brill, who has served as an Air Force and Army chaplain and is stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. "We're asking why all the time."

The latest military and civilian efforts range from 24-hour-a-day psychological counseling and suicide hotlines, including two by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, to chaplain visits and a new Pentagon video game, released in January, providing a virtual post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience to explore the symptoms and causes of combat trauma.

"We believe this is the first time the Department of Defense has used interactive simulations with the Web to help our military community with PTSD in the privacy of their homes," said George Peach Taylor Jr., principal deputy secretary of defense for health affairs.

Hundreds of thousands of service members and their families have called the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, according to the Veterans Health Administration.

At the same time, soldiers, airmen, and sailors are receiving regular PTSD briefings, and each is paired with a "battle buddy" in the Army, a "wingman" in the Air Force, or a "shipmate" in the Navy to watch over each other.

"There isn't anything I do behind a desk that Private Smith or Airman Smith can't do," said Brill, who has counseled more than 4,000 service members. "Everyone is trained to get help for people who need it."

Gaps in the care remain, though. Sgt. Coleman Bean fell through one of them.

"When Coleman died, the young men who came to his funeral said he was the last man they would have expected this of," Linda Bean said.

She is working with U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D., N.J.), who has been seeking House and Senate passage of a suicide-prevention measure named for Coleman Bean that would require military counselors to contact veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the Individual Ready Reserve at least once every 90 days.

That pool of tens of thousands of reservists, which included soldiers such as Bean, returns to civilian life and remains available for call. But reservists live off base, are usually isolated from comrades, and don't have the same support as active-duty and National Guard troops.

Programs such as one proposed in Holt's bill and hotlines such as UMDNJ's "might or might not have saved Coleman's life," Linda Bean said. "What matters is that it saves other people's lives.

"The programs work because nothing happens, because there's no drama, no death," she said. "The biggest blessing these programs offer is that the families have a regular day.

"They go to work, pick up the milk, feed the dog, go to the ballpark, pay the bills, and go to bed," Bean added. "What a grace to have a day like that. How do you know the program works? That's how you know."

Holt's bill, which would connect reservists to other service members, is expected to be considered in early March.

The measure, though, is only a small piece of the puzzle, Linda Bean said.

"It's frustrating when you see a measure being promoted, then you find out it's not fully funded," she said. "People who care about the mental health of our soldiers and veterans say, 'Thank goodness. Someone is doing something.'

"But is the program staffed? Is it a pilot?"

Bean said she would like to see more government funding of civilian programs and more cooperation between the military and efforts such as UMDNJ's Vet2Vet, the first help line of its kind in the nation when it began 2005.

"We've had several thousand calls," said Chuck Arnold, the program's coordinator, who regularly visits military bases across the state to make veterans and service members aware of the hotline.

"Someone will call in and say, 'I got back from Iraq two years ago. I'm unemployed, behind on the mortgage, my kid is failing in school, and I have marital problems.' We handle everything that comes in," said Arnold, a Vietnam veteran.

Arnold usually has four counselors - all of them veterans - on duty during the day and two to three in the evenings. Counselors in UMDNJ's acute psychiatric department take over at 8 p.m. and on weekends.

The program has been so successful that another similar help-line effort - called Vets4Warriors - was developed to help the soldiers and families at Fort Hood, Texas, one of the nation's largest Army posts.

The toll-free, 24-hour help line began taking calls this month after Fort Hood reported 22 suicides in 2010, double the number in 2009, and eight more than at Fort Bragg, N.C., which had the second-largest number.

The Vets4Warriors and Vet2Vet programs were cited last month by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.), who wrote to President Obama urging him to consider expanding the help-line strategy - in the Defense Department's fiscal 2012 budget - to other military installations.

One of those who has benefitted from UMDNJ's effort is Army National Guard Sgt. John Lurker, 47, a combat veteran of Operation Desert Storm who was suffering with PTSD when he called the Vet2Vet line.

After deployment, "heightened sense is a big issue," said Lurker of Hackettstown, N.J. "You're quick to react. . . . You always feel in survival mode."

Lurker, a single parent who divorced last year, said he had tried other programs but found Vet2Vet more helpful because the counselors were veterans who understand what he experienced and are always available.

"When you're traumatized, it's human nature to relive it until you figure out something needs to be fixed," he said. "With other programs, you didn't get anybody live if you called outside of business hours. We need more programs like" Vet2Vet.

"It is long past time to acknowledge these programs and encourage their use for people who won't use other services," Linda Bean said. "The emphasis must be on saving lives and keeping families intact."

Here are some resources for service members, veterans, and their families.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 (TALK) or www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

The Army's comprehensive list of suicide-prevention program information: www.preventsuicide.army.mil.

Suicide-prevention training resources for Army families: www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/training_sub.asp?sub_cat=20.

Defense Department's T2 virtual PTSD experience video game to explore the symptoms and causes of combat trauma: www.t2health.org/vwproj/.

Individual counseling: GiveAnHour (www.giveanhour.org) and the Soldier's Project (www.thesoldiersproject.org).

The National Veterans Foundation's hotline and live-chat service: 1-888-777-4443 or www.nvf.org.

Vets4Vets, a peer-support help line: 520-319-5500 or www.vets4vets.us/.

In New Jersey, the Vet2Vet help line, UMDNJ's peer-support help line: 1-866-838-7654 (1-866 VETS-NJ4) or www.njveteranshelpline.org/.

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