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be broken is often what leads to suicide. Of course, as Rieman knows personally, the cycle can be broken, but doing so requires hard work on the part of the individual. However, it also requires a broader societal shift to re-shaping our cultural approach to the military, mental health generally, and the inter-relationship between the two.
The remainder of this chapter consists of several ideas (and their historical origins) that Rieman and I discussed to assist Veterans and non-Veterans alike in charting a path forward toward ending the Veterans suicide epidemic.
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Currently, stakeholders in the Veterans’ community, talk a lot about the Veterans’ suicide epidemic, and how to prevent Veterans suicides. I believe ‘suicide prevention’ to be somewhat of a misnomer. Yes, we certainly want to avoid any Veteran reaching a point where they feel that suicide is their only option. But, oftentimes, there are many intervening steps that can be taken before a Veteran arrives at this point. Indeed, as noted by David Toombs, the main culprit is often feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, so I feel that keeping the focus on embracing a positive behavior, i.e., “Promoting hope,” is more productive than just focusing on preventing a negative, i.e., “Preventing suicide.” In other words, rather than just being focused solely on suicide prevention, we should be focused on mental health and wellness more broadly. If the focus is on optimal mental health at all times, we can ultimately make more progress than we can by focusing on suicide prevention alone. As the VA itself acknowledges, “[t]o prevent Veteran suicide, we must help reduce Veterans’ risk for suicide before they reach a crisis point and support those Veterans who are in crisis.”
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