Abstract
In light of data indicating military personnel are more likely to reach out to peers during times of need, peer-to-peer (P2P) support programs have been implemented for military suicide prevention. Often designed to reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviors by reducing mental health symptom severity, existing data suggest that P2P programs have little to no effect on mental health symptoms. Conceptualizing suicide prevention from an occupational safety and injury prevention perspective to promote positive health-related behavior change at both the group and individual level may enhance the effectiveness of P2P programs and military suicide prevention efforts more broadly. To illustrate these concepts, the present article provides an overview of the Airman’s Edge project, a P2P program design based upon the occupational safety and injury prevention model of suicide prevention, and describes a program evaluation effort designed to test the effectiveness of this approach.
Highlights
Suicide among U.S military members has steadily increased since 2004 across all branches of service [1,2]
Thinking about killing oneself is higher with 18 percent of military members reporting having these thoughts at some point in their lives compared to only 4 percent of the general population reporting according to the 2015 Department of Defense Health Related
The Department of Defense (DoD) has invested heavily in identifying, developing, and testing interventions to reverse this trend, resulting in several recent advances including brief cognitive behavioral therapy (BCBT) for suicide prevention [4] and crisis response planning [5], each of which contribute to significant reductions in suicidal behaviors among military personnel as compared to treatment as usual
Summary
Suicide among U.S military members has steadily increased since 2004 across all branches of service [1,2]. The Department of Defense (DoD) has invested heavily in identifying, developing, and testing interventions to reverse this trend, resulting in several recent advances including brief cognitive behavioral therapy (BCBT) for suicide prevention [4] and crisis response planning [5], each of which contribute to significant reductions in suicidal behaviors among military personnel as compared to treatment as usual Though promising, these evidence-based interventions are only available to service members from specially trained mental health professionals working within military treatment facilities. Some studies supported positive mental health outcomes associated with P2P programs that used group peer educator or dyadic peer support interventions, 2–3 times as many studies reported no benefit Consistent with these patterns, a military-based P2P program utilizing a peer support model recently reported no change in depression or PTSD symptom severity during the years that coincided with program implementation [7,11].
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