>>Suicide toll among soldiers in Alaska plummets as mental health resources surge

WASHINGTON – There has been one confirmed suicide death among soldiers in Alaska in 2022 – a steep drop compared with previous years – following a surge in mental health resources to Army bases in the state.

The Army dispatched more than 40 counselors and chaplains to Alaska starting in May after USA TODAY reported in April that soldiers with suicidal ideas had waited weeks for appointments with counselors.

Other initiatives aimed at preventing suicide include a mandatory annual counseling session for soldiers, a program to connect soldiers families with Army leaders, and an option for soldiers to choose to serve in Alaska, where the harsh climate and isolation can contribute to mental health problems.

Meanwhile, late Wednesday, Pentagon officials briefed Congress on the latest annual report on suicide among troops. The suicide rate in 2021 declined slightly overall compared with 2020, according to a Capitol Hill source familiar with the briefing but not authorized to speak publicly.

However, Pentagon officials cautioned that the one-year decline did not provide enough data to signify a trend, the source said. The report is scheduled to be released publicly on Thursday.

“The Army has been working on this,” Maj. Gen. Brian Eifler, commander of the 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska, said in an interview. “There’s some mystery to suicide, right? There’s some things that we’ve got to understand better to get out in front of it. At times we are are mystified by what would cause someone to do that, and we can’t stop studying it.”

Rep. Jackie Speier, the California Democrat who chairs the Armed Services Committee panel on personnel, has pushed for more resources for troops in Alaska to address the suicide crisis. She’s been joined by Alaska’s Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, in seeking additional funding from Congress to aid the 12,000 soldiers posted there.

The temporary surge in counseling has resulted in a “sea change,” Speier said. Counselors who had been overwhelmed now have more manageable caseloads.

“They were suffering from PTSD when we were there,” Speier said. “They were overworked, worn out, burned out.”

The Army, and Pentagon overall, will need to hire more permanent behavioral staff to make lasting changes, she said.

Most soldiers have had their annual mandatory session with a family life counselor, Eifler said. That has resulted in 1,000 soldiers or members of their families being referred for more intensive mental health treatment.

“The big thing is they walk away confident that these people actually care; they listen,” he said.

Noncommissioned officers – the sergeants who supervise enlisted soldiers – now offer the soldier’s next-of-kin contact information should they become aware of problems, Eifler said. Family members are encouraged reach out before issues worsen.

“We had a mom contact the squad leader this week because they were concerned about their son, what he was doing,” Eifer said. “The only reason she was able to do that is because they had reached out.”

The option to choose to serve in Alaska has resulted in 1,000 soldiers volunteering, Eifler said. About 400 of them have arrived in Alaska. The environment can be brutal, especially at Fort Wainwright in Alaska’s frigid interior. Temperatures of 30 below zero are common, and sunlight diminishes to a flicker in the winter.

It’s also a vast and stunningly beautiful landscape of black spruce forests that shelter moose and bears, gushing rivers packed with salmon and snow-capped mountains. It’s paradise, of a sort, for the right person.

“If you want people to come to the harshest experiment in the world, then you want people that want to come here,” Eifler said. “So that 1,000 has taken the place of maybe some others that might not have performed as well. Because it is quite the adventure up here.”

The emphasis on bolstering the counseling corps appears to have had a more dramatic impact than the $200 million the Army poured into Alaska for construction projects after a relatively small spike in suicides in 2019. New or rehabbed barracks replaced cramped, dark living spaces after  eight soldiers died by suicide that year.

In 2020, the suicide toll was seven. The 17 suicide deaths in 2021, including eight in a four-month period as reported by USA TODAY, seized the attention of leadership at the Pentagon and Capitol Hill.

In March, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the creation of an independent panel to review suicides in the military focusing on nine bases, including three in Alaska. The panel’s findings and recommendations are due to Congress by Feb. 18.

Amid suicide crisis, the Army says it will rush mental health providers to Alaska

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Soldier suicides plummet in Alaska amid mental health surge