[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 105 (Tuesday, July 14, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7445-S7446]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           SUICIDE PREVENTION

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about an amendment 
that I have filed to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010. 
This amendment is to ensure that comprehensive suicide prevention 
services will be offered to our National Guard and Reservists as part 
of the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program.
  Sadly, too often we hear about the death of an armed services member 
from an unnecessary and preventable suicide. Suicide has become an 
increasingly severe problem across the Armed Forces. For the first time 
in history, the number of battlefield suicides in early 2009 was higher 
than the number of combat deaths. I am pleased that the Defense 
Authorization Act we are considering supports increased efforts to 
prevent suicide among active duty personnel. However, there is 
currently no requirement that all National Guard members and 
communities have access to a comprehensive suicide prevention program.
  Even in the wake of suicides, Guard members are often called back to 
active duty and redeployed into dangerous and intense combat 
situations. Suicide devastates not only military families but also 
military communities and fellow soldiers. Currently, while active duty 
soldiers receive suicide prevention training programs, there are no 
established programs to train National Guardsmen and Reservists to 
prevent suicides when they return to their communities from deployment. 
And the families of Guardsmen and Reservists do not receive training 
under Yellow Ribbon to recognize the warning signs of suicide.
  In Afghanistan and Iraq, we increasingly rely on our National Guard 
and Reservists. We see that first-hand in New Hampshire: Recently, more 
than 1,100 members of the 197th Fires Brigade, which includes units 
from Berlin, Franklin and Manchester, NH, received notice that they can 
expect to be deployed to the Middle East. Fortunately, when these 
soldiers return home from battle, they and their communities will have 
comprehensive suicide prevention training available to them. That is 
thanks to the initiative of New Hampshire's National Guard's pilot 
Program, the Connect Program, that has gone beyond the Yellow Ribbon 
Program.
  To date, the Connect Program, which is administered by the National 
Alliance on Mental Illness in New Hampshire, has provided hundreds of 
officers, Chaplains and other Guardsmen with an interactive, community-
based suicide prevention training. Through Connect, a Guard member who 
returns home from duty learns how to recognize the warning signs of 
suicidal behavior, how to respond to someone who shows those signs, and 
where to point that person to the services he or she needs.
  But the program doesn't end with the Guard member. It also provides 
this training to the Guard member's community. The Guard member's 
commanding officers are trained to recognize suicidal tendencies in the 
soldiers who they command. Guard families, who often have no experience 
with mental illness and suicide, are also provided with that training. 
This is especially critical because, unlike active duty personnel, 
Guard members don't see their fellow soldiers every day when they come 
back from being deployed. Instead, they go back to their families and 
civilian communities, which simply aren't capable of recognizing the 
warning signs of suicidal behavior. The Connect Program fills a crucial 
gap because it uses interactive training to emphasize that mental 
health is a community responsibility.
  The Connect Program also ensures that community members know how to 
cope with and respond to a suicide in the Guard community. People who 
know someone who has died by suicide are statistically at increased 
risk of taking their own life. The program helps communities reduce 
that risk and promote healing in response to a suicide, which is an 
essential element of any suicide prevention program. Thanks to their 
effective work in response to suicides, Connect has been designated as 
a National Best Practice Program in Suicide Prevention and its work 
with the National Guard was recently recognized as a model program by 
the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration in the 
Department of Health and Human Services, HHS.
  But not all State National Guards offer such comprehensive suicide 
prevention programs after deployment. In the Army National Guard alone, 
there have been 29 confirmed suicides this year among Army Guardsmen 
who were not on active duty. I rise today because we need to extend 
these critical services across the country before even more soldiers 
fall through the cracks.
  The Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program has been a tremendously 
important and successful effort to transition our Guard members back to 
civilian life. However, these Guard and Reservist suicides have made 
clear that Yellow Ribbon is simply incomplete without an established, 
nationally implemented program that trains Guard members, communities 
and families to recognize the warning signs of suicide after deployment 
and to cope with the loss of a loved one.
  Fortunately for us in New Hampshire, our National Guard identified 
that need early and went above and beyond Yellow Ribbon, creating a 
pilot program to ensure that the New Hampshire Guard community has the 
tools they need to prevent suicides when soldiers return from battle. 
Studies of the Connect Program have shown that people who receive this 
training feel particularly well-prepared to not only recognize the 
warning signs of suicide, but also to respond to suicides in their 
communities.
  But others across the country may not be so fortunate. That is why 
this amendment would require the Office for Reintegration Programs to 
establish a program to provide these members, their families, and their 
communities with training in suicide prevention and community healing 
in response to suicide. The principals of the program would be modeled 
on the nationally recognized pilot program that has worked so well in 
New Hampshire.
  I am pleased that the amendment is supported by the National Guard 
Association of the United States. Please join us in making these 
critical services a standard part of our outreach to National Guard 
members, families, and communities across the country.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the amendment 
be printed in the Record at this point.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:


[[Page S7446]]


       On page 161, after line 23, add the following:

     SEC. 557. EXPANSION OF SUICIDE PREVENTION AND COMMUNITY 
                   HEALING AND RESPONSE TRAINING UNDER THE YELLOW 
                   RIBBON REINTEGRATION PROGRAM.

       Section 582 of the National Defense Authorization Act for 
     Fiscal Year 2008 (Public Law 110-181; 10 U.S.C. 10101 note) 
     is amended--
       (1) in subsection (h)--
       (A) by striking paragraph (3); and
       (B) by redesignating paragraphs (4) through (15) as 
     paragraphs (3) through (14), respectively; and
       (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
       ``(i) Suicide Prevention and Community Healing and Response 
     Program.--
       ``(1) Establishment.--As part of the Yellow Ribbon 
     Reintegration Program, the Office for Reintegration Programs 
     shall establish a program to provide National Guard and 
     Reserve members, their families, and their communities with 
     training in suicide prevention and community healing and 
     response to suicide.
       ``(2) Design.--In establishing the program under paragraph 
     (1), the Office for Reintegration Programs shall consult 
     with--
       ``(A) persons that have experience and expertise with 
     combining military and civilian intervention strategies that 
     reduce risk and promote healing after a suicide attempt or 
     suicide death for National Guard and Reserve members; and
       ``(B) the adjutant general of each State, the Commonwealth 
     of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the 
     Virgin Islands.
       ``(3) Operation.--
       ``(A) Suicide prevention training.--The Office for 
     Reintegration Programs shall provide National Guard and 
     Reserve members with training in suicide prevention. Such 
     training shall include--
       ``(i) describing the warning signs for suicide and teaching 
     effective strategies for prevention and intervention;
       ``(ii) examining the influence of military culture on risk 
     and protective factors for suicide; and
       ``(iii) engaging in interactive case scenarios and role 
     plays to practice effective intervention strategies.
       ``(B) Community healing and response training.--The Office 
     for Reintegration Programs shall provide the families and 
     communities of National Guard and Reserve members with 
     training in responses to suicide that promote individual and 
     community healing. Such training shall include--
       ``(i) enhancing collaboration among community members and 
     local service providers to create an integrated, coordinated 
     community response to suicide;
       ``(ii) communicating best practices for preventing suicide, 
     including safe messaging, appropriate memorial services, and 
     media guidelines;
       ``(iii) addressing the impact of suicide on the military 
     and the larger community, and the increased risk that can 
     result; and
       ``(iv) managing resources to assist key community and 
     military service providers in helping the families, friends, 
     and fellow soldiers of a suicide victim through the processes 
     of grieving and healing.
       ``(C) Collaboration with centers of excellence.--The Office 
     for Reintegration Programs, in consultation with the Defense 
     Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic 
     Brain Injury, shall collect and analyze `lessons learned' and 
     suggestions from State National Guard and Reserve 
     organizations with existing or developing suicide prevention 
     and community response programs.''.

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________