<p>I recently received a letter from the office of admissions with information about the two suicides that occurred in the last two months. I suppose it was to ward off too much apprehension to considering west point if accepted. </p>
<p>I was seriously shocked that two cadets would choose that decision, and within a two month time period range.</p>
<p>my parents received the same letter(it was addressed to them not to my brother-the candidate), I suspect you are right, to calm parents down so they do not discourage their children from turning down an appt.</p>
<p>The take home message for me was that candidates need to disclose any prior history of mental illness or prior suicide attempts.</p>
<p>We received the letter as well yesterday, and it was addressed to us (well, "the parents of...my son's name"). Frustrating because son sent in his SLS paperwork last week and we're waiting patiently for the confirmation that he got the session he wants so that we can start looking for air. Got that letter and was sure it was his confirmation. Nope.</p>
<p>Then today, another letter from West Point. Ah, this must be it! Nope - this time it was simply fundraising - we can contribute to the Superintendent's fund (my husband and I are grads). Wonder if we did if we'd get his confirmation letter sooner!?</p>
<p>So, still waiting!</p>
<p>The letter published by West Point was done so to dispel the rumors that have been flying around, i.e. the loosely factual Washington Post article, about what has been happening here. Unfortunately several cadets took it upon themselves to anonymously speak to the media and disclose information largely based on rumors and hearsay; not to say that they were totally at fault, as I'm sure the journalist(s) involved misreported what the cadets said as well.</p>
<p>The lesson to learn here is, cadets should not talk to the media, at least while in uniform and on the record as a soldier, unless given prior authorization to do so. The reason is that most cadets have not been instructed on what is proper/allowed to be said/discussed and what is not, and therefore they will usually do the Academy and the Army more harm than good, especially on a subject such as this one.</p>
<p>Ya I recievedthe letter as well. I read it before I gave it to my parents. When I visited last week the cadet who was touring me around metioned the suicides. I was suprised to see cadets talk to the media, I did not expect that</p>
<p>Never talk to the press until the next day. You will be less emotional and they will care less. Now, because of these events my future cadet will have to go seminars on suicicide, sensititivty training, etc.. all intended to make our system weaker.</p>
<p>Cadet Suicides Prompt Change At West Point</p>
<p>Military Academy Says It Will Emphasize That Seeking Help With Mental Health Won't Jeopardize Careers</p>
<p>
[quote]
AP) Following four suicides at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, officials said Wednesday they are emphasizing to cadets that seeking help for mental health problems won't jeopardize their military careers.</p>
<p>In the last seven months, two cadets, a faculty member and a staff member at the academy have taken their own lives. The suicides were the first at the school in upstate New York since 1999.</p>
<p>They are part of a larger trend as the strained military wages war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army had its highest rate of suicide on record in 2008 and is investigating a spike in the number in January.</p>
<p>Academy Chaplain Col. John Cook, who addressed the issue Wednesday at a board meeting on Capitol Hill, said there does not appear to be a common denominator among the four West Point suicides - the most recent of which occurred in January. None of the four had faced a recent deployment, for example.</p>
<p>In addition to the suicides, two cadets recently attempted to take their own lives, he said.</p>
<p>"We're doing everything we can to study these cases, understand why they happened, and see what we can do to move ahead," Cook said.</p>
<p>He said three times the number of cadets are seeking mental health help, which leaders view as a positive sign that the stigma associated with getting assistance has been reduced.</p>
<p>Brig. Gen. Michael Linnington, commandant of cadets, said there is a misconception among cadets that seeking help will jeopardize their military careers, so leaders have aggressively emphasized that's not the case.</p>
<p>Army Secretary Pete Geren, who also attended the meeting, said that's also a challenge Army-wide. He said surveys show the stigma associated with seeking help has decreased, but more than half of soldiers surveyed still believe that getting help could damage their futures.</p>
<p>Cook said the academy has reframed its training on suicide prevention to include it as part of its leadership development curriculum. In small group settings, he said, future military officers discuss preventing suicide as part of being a good leader.</p>
<p>"How are you going to ... make sure your soldiers remain alive so they can continue their service to our nation?" Cook said the cadets discuss.</p>
<p>Linnington said there's an understanding that with each new class, mental health needs to be discussed.</p>
<p>"It's not something we can ever rest on," he said.</p>
<p>Also Wednesday, top senators on the Veterans Affairs Committee, Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Richard Burr, R-N.C., issued a statement asking Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to convene a joint oversight committee meeting to address military suicides.</p>
<p>The committee "should move immediately to determine whether deficiencies exist in the way potential military personnel are screened, or in the diagnosis or treatment of active duty service members who are suffering from psychological problems," their statement said.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>pedro4 wrote:
[quote]
Never talk to the press until the next day.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sorry pedro4, but American service members don't talk to the press in uniform unless they're a public information officer or senior officer giving a press briefing. It's policy and common sense to keep your mouth shut even if one is a government/private business employee.</p>
<p>Pedro,</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you meant by these "seminars" being intended to make our services weaker...they do quite the opposite in fact. I know from personal experience here that they are helpful in making people aware of signs of impending suicide, knowing what procedures are for reporting them, or for seeking help, etc. For instance, if I had never been to a suicide prevention briefing, I probably would have never known what the different avenues of seeking help were, that there are some officials within the military that either have an obligation to report or are not restricted from reporting what they are told by servicemembers, and that there are others who are held in confidentiality.</p>
<p>Being more sensitized to the needs of one's unit members does not make the system weaker by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, a platoon that knows its PL will be there for them when they need help, will do everything in his/her power to keep morale high and unit cohesion strong; is a platoon that will trust their leader to the fullest and probably be more likely to follow that person under tougher circumstances than a leader who neglects these things.</p>
<p>AmericanSoldier,
Thank you for your thoughtful response. It appears that you are well on your way to becoming an exemplary Army officer.</p>
<p>As a long time executive I have had to suffer through countless "seminars" driven by the political correctness of the day. Sexual harassment, diversity training, you name it-we had a weekend retreat for it that inevitably led to me thinking-"well, that is just common sense". These never dealt with life and death issues like this so I should back down on my feelings. But I fear our military is being overwhelmed with missions well beyond their prime directive.</p>
<p>AmericanSoldier, you have it absolutely right. As an officer, Soldier, cadet, whatever, it's not that you cant talk to the media, but you need to speak with PAO and your chain of command prior to. When I was in Iraq, there were countless times when members of the media would come to speak to Soldiers, and they would do a lenghty interview that hit a lot of good points, only to play the 2 seconds in which the Soldier sounded like we should pull out of Iraq, which was not what they were saying when taken in context of the entire interview, but it proved the agenda whatever reporter wanted. I read that Washington Post article and was appalled by what the annoymous cadets said; I'm sorry, but as a plebe, you have no idea what's going on at the higher levels of the academy.</p>
<p>Changing gears. Suicide is a SERIOUS problem in the Army right now. More Soldiers took their own lives in January than were killed by hostile action in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. USMA happens to be falling into the much larger problem. We had a Soldier kill himself in my Battalion just 2 weeks ago; our Brigade had at least 4 suicides while we were in Iraq, and we had several prior to heading over. While we may find it easy to sit back and say "why would a cadet want to take their life?" we need to also look at the bigger issue throughout the entire Army and what is causing Soldiers to kill themselves at the highest rate since Vietnam, despite the fact that actual combat trauma in Iraq is at an all time low, and, despite it's recent resurgence in Afghanistan, still remains much lower than it has been in previous wars. The Army as a whole is having a huge problem right now, one caused in major part, in my opinion, by the strain of multiple deployments on relationships back home. We need to fix this. A wise man once told me that it doesnt matter how you get killed; in a car accident, taking your own life, getting torn apart by an IED, the endstate is the same--it destroys the team that you were a part of because people count on you to do your job and with you gone, the strain goes on someone else.
I know I've been very longwinded on this, but it's an issue I've been racking my brain on for sometime now and I'm glad it's been brought up here. Something that you all who are at the academy or are trying to go need to take away from this is the importance of ensuring your Soldiers, friends, classmates, whoever, know that they have someone they can go and talk to. My Platoon went through a 2 week period of a lot of pretty traumatic stuff in Iraq, and we pulled everyone together and just talked about what we were going through, and I really think it helped Soldiers open up and know it was ok to talk about how they were feeling. Regardless if its PTSD or relationship or stress issues, you need to have someone to talk to.</p>
<p>I am wonderng what the statistics of suicides are for most college towns? </p>
<p>While <em>any</em> suicide is one too many, when I learned of these situations, I had to question if the attempt to take one's own life is just more publicly known at a service academy based on the nature of the cadet accountability and tight-knit community. Such attempts in any other college town could be slid into the surrounding community without much notice and without a direct connection to a particular school. I am not trying to answer any questions or take away from the need for preventative measures, more just wondering out loud. Any thoughts on this? Also, I have not read the Wash. Post article, but had heard about suicides in the past two years from another WP mom. Maybe those deaths were suspicious but not tagged as such? This was contradictory to what I had read somewhere here about none since 1999. That said, I realize this is, as ScreamingEagle pointed out, a part of the bigger picture with our Army. </p>
<p>We have not received letters from the academy itself, however our Parent Association has passed on emails from WP pertaining to counseling and other services available to the cadets. The main message I personally would send to all parents of cadets: Keep those lines of communication open at all times. The one thing I have learned as a Plebe parent this year is that my love and support means more than anything else to a young person who <em>thought</em> they were ready to move off and conquer the world. Some days they are very confident, some days they just need to know that someone cares when they have had a really lousy day, they are re-thinking their commitment, and/or they are ready to call it quits. Above all, I pray for these cadets on a regular basis. They are under so much more pressure than any of their peers. Parents of cadet candidates: support, support, support. Don't offer advice (I am learning that the hard way) - just listen. Let them pour out their hearts and if you need to, make a trek up there for a weekend just to take them out for a meal off-post (Highland Falls = Walking Privileges!). Knowing you are willing to sacrifice for them communicates that we as parents better understand the sacrifice they are making for their country.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and posts on this subject.</p>
<p>Anonagron I don't know anything on the statistics of suicides but with your words you have touched my heart strings... so eloquently put.</p>
<p>Ann,
These cadets did already have known mental issues and were being treated. One of them was actually home on a special leave. So very sad.</p>
<p>It is a fairly well accepted fact in the mental health community that suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students. It is something all colleges need to take very seriously. Just Google "suicide" and "college" and you will be stunned. </p>
<p>I think that parents of college age students need to be better informed regarding this issue.</p>
<p>Suicide is the third leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds. Each and everyone is a tragedy. It does happen at other colleges and even high schools - even more perplexing is the phenomenon of suicide "clusters". This is when several occur at the same place (same school. town etc) that are not related. When this happens it is just awful because no one knows just what to do about it.
There is no evidence of a suicide "cluster" at West Point. I think that it was appropriate for West Point to send the letter to parents of applicants - to be forthright and honest about the events.
The stigma of suicide is real and people want answers. Since often times answers can't be found they want to blame something or someone; when no one is found to blame the institution gets the blame. This happened at my kids' high school a few years back when there were several suicides over several years. People wanted to know "what was going on" etc.
I would hope that no parent would discourage their child from going to West Point based on the suicide tragedies that have occurred this year.
Both suicides happened off post. There no safer place for your child than on post at West Point. They are well taken care of by the chain of command.</p>
<p>I think what Ann is getting at is that by not disclosing previous mental illness or emotional problems puts a person at risk when they are living in a stressful environment. West Point can be a very stressful environment and exposure to stress can seriously affect someone who is susceptible.</p>
<p>Sierra 1 - I do not think it is appropriate to discuss the specifics of any particular case. The letter states that "a number of cadets who have exhibited suicidal tendencies have had undisclosed prior psychological conditions".
The take home message for me is that if the candidate has had previous mental health issues, it should be disclosed during the admissions/DoDMERB process so that USMA can make an evaluation of the situation before a candidate is admitted into a known stressful environment. To me this is the first line of defense on the prevention front.</p>
<p>Sierra1,</p>
<p>I knew one of the cadets in question personally and can assure you that the one I knew at least, was not being treated for mental health issues, nor did that person have any that even their closest friends were aware of. Period. End of discussion. It is very inappropriate to disseminate unverified information.</p>