VA suicide prevention efforts need more focus on gun safety training

Sgt (Join to see) I whole heartedly agree Brother Kerry.

Plenty is being done but they are using a civilian model and it is simply not effective. The moment I got off the cattle truck they started breaking us down and building us up to focus on the team and the mission. A good SM does not focus on themselves, it is about the team. Then when we present with mental health, it becomes individual and all touchy feely. We are really trying to put a square peg into a round hole and it is grossly ineffective. Then you take the SM that is taught to roll around in the mud and rain, like it, and then complete the mission and we think when suicide is the mission we are going to fail? You want to kill yourself then you are abandoning your buddies, pushing your pain onto them, and are the biggest buddy fuck is what we need to be pushing. Will it be popular no but after 24years in the service, twenty as an RN, I have no 'I' in my vocabulary, it is all about others. We need to change the approach with vets.

SPC Stephanie Seifert I have taken YMHFA (Youth Mental Health First Aid) courses to help me identify students in crisis and get them referred to a mental health specialist. Have I ever saved a life? I don't know but the answer to that. But I would hope that if someone is that far down and I saw it (because of the training I received) and it saved just one teenager, it was worth the time I spent in class. High school kids don't think things through sometimes and do irrational things. With so many children coming from broken homes and left to fend for themselves in many cases, we, as teachers, need to be able recognize issues and to be there to help them when nobody else is. (Off my rant for now)